Lightning and Death Itself
by Cke1st
Summary: Toothless uses a little-known dragon ability to alter the outcome of the romantic flight... and the very nature of his passengers. Rated T for subject matter; the language is all K. Dragon!Hiccup, dragon!Astrid, some Hiccstrid, no slash.
1. Chapter 1

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 1

A/N: the concept of this story is old and moldy, but I still felt the need to write one of my own, with my own twists on the idea. I've tried _very_ hard to avoid any OOC stuff, especially with Toothless. Most of these stories start with Toothless taking action as payback for Hiccup shooting him down. But what if he did it for more benevolent motives?

**o**

Night Furies are not supposed to scream in terror. Lesser species do that.

But the Night Fury called Toothless was screaming, and it wasn't a battle cry. He and his human friend, Hiccup, had gone flying with his artificial tail and saddle gear for the first time. After a few exciting but uneventful minutes, things started to unravel fast. Hiccup flew off Toothless' back at the top of a climb, and both of them tumbled out of control until it was almost too late. Somehow, Hiccup got back in the saddle, and they both got pointed in the right direction. But that "right direction" led them straight into a maze of rock towers and tunnels that no sane dragon would try to fly at half-speed, never mind the near-terminal velocity they carried out of their downward plunge.

As they rocketed toward certain injury and possible death, Toothless could feel the human's fear, mirroring the fear in his own heart. Someone's blood was about to get spattered on those rocks. But suddenly, Hiccup's terror turned into determination as strong as steel. He felt the boy lean forward and pull them into a tight curve. Toothless had no choice but to trust Hiccup's untested and unpracticed ability to fly, and unbelievably, he was a natural at it. He turned the tail at just the right angles at just the right moments, threw his own weight into turns and rolls, and gave Toothless the confidence to give it all he had. It was all over in a few terrifying seconds. Somehow, against all possible odds, they made it through unscathed.

They shot into the clear air over the sea, and Hiccup raised his hands over his head with a shout of triumph. Toothless' face was covered with a draconian smile as well. But it wasn't just because they'd survived an impossible ride together. Hiccup had shown some qualities about himself that no one else suspected. He could muster courage to overcome fear; he was determined, not a quitter; he was committed to his relationship with his dragon; and he understood flight. Toothless smiled because he now knew his rider was a near-perfect candidate for the transformation.

He shot out a fireball, not the usual blazing bolt of destruction, but the special one that would become a Vortex. He pumped his Power into it, preparing it for the irrevocable moment. And then, unsure why, he stopped. The Power bled back into him, and the special fireball dissipated into a normal fire that scorched Hiccup's hair and clothing even as he complained, "Oh, come on!" Toothless couldn't understand why he had hesitated. Would there ever be a better candidate, or a better time?

It seemed utterly unlikely. But he'd backed away, and the moment could not be reclaimed. Maybe he might get a second chance.

The next day was the day that changed everything. Toothless and Hiccup were discovered by another human, one called Astrid, whom Hiccup cared about and feared at the same time. He made it plain that her escape was a bad thing, so he and Toothless captured her, persuaded her to go for a ride, and spun her until she begged for mercy. Hiccup didn't see the need for that part, but Toothless did.

As soon as the diving and spinning stopped, so did her terror. Like Hiccup, she had no fear of flying; she delighted in the endless beauty of the clouds. Toothless took them for a ride in the world where dragons dare, enjoying his friend's company and wondering what this other human intended.

He considered her. She was brave and determined. She was no friend of dragons, but she was at least willing to put her hostility aside for a season. And, most importantly of all, she was female. Two candidates at once – a matched pair, yet! A chance like this would not come again in two hundred years! Toothless blessed the weighted ropes that had brought him down, and the destiny that had made him hesitate yesterday, and the luck that had brought Astrid along today. There would be no hesitation this time.

He blew out his fireball and began infusing it with Power. The Vortex began to take shape in front of them, a spinning disc of wildly flowing colors floating in mid-air. Hiccup stared at it and broke their long silence. "Toothless, what is that?"

The Vortex reached full power. It crackled and spun, and Toothless dove straight into the middle of it. At the moment of contact, its power discharged like a bolt of lightning. Hiccup had a split second to remember something he had just read:

"_Night Fury. The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself."_

The light was too bright. The sound was too loud. The pain was too intense. Alien feelings and sensations flooded Hiccup's mind to overflowing, spinning his senses out of control. It might have lasted for half a second, or half an hour – he couldn't tell. And just as suddenly, there was no light but the fading sun, no sound but the wind whipping past his ears. That, and the scream of Toothless, who was plunging out of control without a rider.

Hiccup reacted instinctively, completely without thought. He quickly swooped down and pulled alongside his friend. There was no way for him to work the tail's pedals, so he flew next to Toothless and jammed his own tail against his friend's, supplying the needed stability. Side by side, wings overlapping, they glided together down from the skies to the lagoon, reducing their speed as they descended. They winged over the water as Hiccup tried to figure out how Toothless could land. He glanced down into the water.

He saw their reflections.

That was when _he_ screamed.

He had been so single-mindedly focused on his friend's need for help, he hadn't realized he was relying on instincts and reflexes he shouldn't have had, and working with limbs he wasn't born with. Now he saw two Night Furies reflected in the still water, and his mind couldn't handle it. He closed his eyes with an incoherent cry, his tail went limp, and he swerved sideways and hit the ground hard, plowing a deep furrow as he painfully skidded to a halt. Toothless splashed into the water as soon as he lost the support of Hiccup's tail.

Hiccup tried to look at himself, but his head didn't turn like it should. He could see his arms, which had turned into strong, stubby forelegs, and he could see his tail, which shouldn't even have been there. He stared at Toothless as the dragon climbed out of the water and shook himself dry.

"Toothless, what have you –" His voice wasn't even his voice any more! It was the same mix of roars, grunts, and growls that Toothless used. The other Night Fury looked up and stared at him.

"It worked!" Toothless exclaimed. "We made it!"

Hiccup's brain shut down. He had somehow been turned into a dragon without being aware of it, he could fly, he couldn't talk like a human, but he could understand Toothless... this was way, _way_ past the limit of what he could handle. He fell over on his side, tried to hide his head in his hands, hid his head with his tail when his front paws didn't reach, and cried like a lost child.

Toothless stood and watched him silently. _I hope you learn to appreciate this, my friend, my brother_. _But please stop crying. Night Furies aren't supposed to cry.  
_


	2. Chapter 2

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 2

Hiccup was so shaken by his unexpected transformation into a dragon, he completely forgot that there was someone else in the air when it happened.

Astrid was clinging to Hiccup when the Night Fury plunged into the Vortex, but she quickly let go to cover her eyes with her hands, trying to ward off the sights and sounds that overwhelmed her. She screamed, and to her horror, her alto scream dropped in pitch to a baritone bellow that no human voice box could produce. She felt the shape of her face changing, felt her skin breaking out in scales, just before her arms became too short to reach her face. She found herself tumbling through the sky.

When Toothless and Hiccup had snatched her off the ground earlier that afternoon, she had clung to the Night Fury's paw in panic. Then she realized it was a dragon's paw and released it. Then she realized she was a hundred feet off the ground and clutched it again. She now did something very similar. She spread her unfamiliar wings to stop herself from falling. Then she realized they were dragon's wings and let them go limp, unwilling to even try to control them. Then she felt herself falling and spread them again.

"This can't be happening!" she thought. "I just came in second in dragon training! My mother and father are waiting for me at home! I _hate_ dragons! This can't be real!" Unlike Hiccup, who flew without trying to think about it, she tried to make her wings and tail work, and succeeded only in spinning herself out of control.

The ground was getting closer by the second. She focused on her wings, and got them straight out. Now she was moving in a straight line... straight toward the ground. How could she steer? The tail, maybe? She curved it upward, and her flight line changed. Innate reflexes kicked in for a moment before she tried to control them. Somehow she got her descent under control and skidded to a halt in the forest that covered the north half of the island of Berk, cutting a swath through the undergrowth. She had no idea where she was. For that matter, she wasn't sure _what_ she was.

For several minutes, she stood stock-still, quivering with shock. When she decided to move, it was hard; she had not walked on all fours since she was a baby, and she hadn't had a tail trailing behind her then. It was slow going. It was getting dark. Where should she go?

She decided to follow the sounds of other dragons. At least they wouldn't kill her on sight, she hoped. They were nearby, and they were not quiet.

Hiccup opened his eyes, which were wet with tears. He looked at himself again. He still had a black-on-black scaly body, four legs, wings, and a tail. "If this is a nightmare, someone wake me up!" he begged out loud.

"Not a Nightmare, a Night Fury!" Toothless corrected him. "Please tell me you know the difference."

Hiccup rolled to his feet and backed away. "Toothless? You're talking! How...?"

"I've been talking all along, but you couldn't understand me," Toothless answered. "Now you're a dragon like me, so you can understand me, and any other dragon, for that matter."

"I'm not a dragon!" Hiccup moaned. "I'm a human! I'm Hiccup! Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, son of Stoick the Vast! I'm a Viking! Not a dragon! _I_ am a _Viking!_"

"You told me that once before," Toothless said. "You didn't _really_ believe it then. You can't convince me you believe it now."

"But if I'm not a Viking, then what else can I be?" Hiccup asked wildly.

"How about a Night Fury?" Toothless knew that most humans had a hard time with the transformation at first, but it seemed like Hiccup was being clueless on purpose.

"I can't do that!" he protested. "Maybe I walk like you and I talk like you, but I think like... _me!_"

"That will change with time," Toothless replied. "You won't lose your memories or your personality, but your way of thinking will change. You'll be a dragon, just like me."

"No! No!" Hiccup shook his head. "I can't be a dragon! Vikings kill dragons! If I go home like this, they'll kill me! My father..." He stopped in shock. "My own father will kill me. Really kill me."

"Then maybe you shouldn't go home," Toothless said softly.

"But where else could I..." Hiccup let the words trail off; he'd had a dangerous thought. "Toothless, did _you_ do this to me?"

"You make it sound like I did something bad," Toothless answered.

"Something bad?" Hiccup almost screamed. "Look what you did to me! You took away my body! You took away my family, my tribe, my village... _everything!_ Oh, gods! Oh, gods!" He broke down crying again.

"Hiccup, listen to me!" Toothless pleaded, moving closer to him. "I'm Toothless! I'm your friend! We've shared food, we've flown together, we've trusted each other with our lives! Would I do anything to hurt you?"

Hiccup opened one eye. "I don't think so. I mean, I didn't used to think so. Everything is upside-down now!" He took a deep breath. "Tell me one thing, Toothless. Why did you do it?"

Toothless lay down and wrapped his tail around himself. "The long answer would take a while. The short answer is, I did you a favor."

"A favor?" Hiccup forced himself to laugh. "A favor! You took away everything I ever had, and gave me a body that's on every Viking's 'Ten Most Wanted' list. Maybe I'm having trouble with dragon language and I don't know what 'favor' means. Yeah, that's it."

Toothless looked intently into his eyes. "Hiccup, what did I take away that you ever wanted to keep? You kept telling me about the villagers, and how they all call you Hiccup the Useless. About your friends, and how they'd insult you and abuse you when they weren't ignoring you. About your father, and how he has time and energy and patience for everyone else but you. Now you're suddenly telling me you miss them all?"

In a small voice, Hiccup answered, "They're all I've got."

"Wrong again!" Toothless corrected him. "Let me tell you what you've got." He rose and began pacing back and forth as he spoke.

"You've got the body of a Night Fury, the rarest and greatest of all dragons. You'll be at the top of dragon society, except for the Mother, of course. Dragons are a lot friendlier than you think, and you'll make friends, _real_ friends who like you and respect you and don't stab you in the back. You'll have a lot more friends among us than you'd ever have in that narrow-minded little village. In _our_ community, you'll fit in.

"You've got the skills of the greatest of all flying creatures. I knew you were a natural at flying when we made it through those rocks, but I didn't know _how_ natural until you brought me in without my tail just now. That kind of air-to-air rescue is _not_ an easy thing, but you did it perfectly on the first try. The first thing you ever did as a dragon, you did right! That's quite a change from Hiccup the Useless, don't you think?

"You've got a life. We Night Furies live for hundreds of years, so you've got a _lot_ of life. You'll own the skies; you can go anywhere you want, any time you want. You want to travel? Take off; you'll see things that no Viking will ever lay eyes on. You want adventure? Go find some; it's everywhere. You want company? Join any group of dragons anywhere, and they'll welcome you. You want peace and quiet? Any treetop or mountaintop will do. No more shoveling coal and sharpening swords for you, Hiccup! You're a creature of the sky! You can really start to live now.

"And you've got a mate. That girl you like so much, the one who was riding behind you? She turned into a Night Fury, too. She's getting close; I can hear her. You're destined for each other. And you're a fine-looking dragon, if you don't mind my saying so. She'll go for you. You'll be happy together for a very, _very_ long time, which is something that wouldn't happen in that village, now, would it?

"So how can you say you've got nothing? Hiccup, I've given you everything! I've fulfilled your every dream, your every wish! Everything you _ever_ wanted in life is waiting for you to reach out and take it. The least you could do is have the good manners to say 'Thank you'."

"Thank you?" Hiccup stared at the creature that, until very recently, he'd thought of as his best friend. He opened his mouth, and the words he had said earlier in the day with dry sarcasm, now came out with a despairing sob. "Thank you for _nothing_, you useless reptile!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 3

"You've given me everything I ever wanted," Hiccup repeated slowly, sadly. "Everything except the things I wanted the most. To hear the people in my village say, 'You're one of us.' To hear my friends say, 'We like you.' To hear Astrid say, 'I love you.' And to hear my father say, 'I'm proud of you.' Those are the things I _really_ want, Toothless, and now I can't have _any_ of them. You don't understand humans."

"You've got that right," Toothless retorted. "I've given you the world, and all you want is that dismal little village, full of dismal little people who are never, never, _never_ going to give you the things you want."

"The things I need, you mean," Hiccup answered. "I need human companionship! Changing my body hasn't changed that!"

"But, Hiccup, what about me?" Toothless asked softly.

"What about you?"

"Does my companionship count for anything?" Toothless said. "In that moment in the forest, when you held my life in your hands, we formed a bond. It got a little stronger when I pinned you to the rock. And it got stronger yet when I saw you watching me in the cove that first time. Do you know what TrueSight is?" Hiccup shook his head.

"We dragons don't talk about our feelings. It's too easy to misunderstand each other. Instead, we share our feelings directly, by making eye contact. We call it TrueSight because we can't tell lies that way. Any two dragons can do it, as long as both are willing. We don't get many chances to try it on humans, but you and I have done it many times, even though you didn't know it. I've always known how you felt about me. You didn't get much out of it because you weren't a dragon. But now you are. Will you share TrueSight with me?"

When Hiccup didn't respond, Toothless added, "Please?"

At last, Hiccup nodded. "I guess things can't get much worse. What do I do?"

"Just look in my eyes, and relax." Hiccup did so. Those huge Night Fury eyes were fascinating to look at, anyway, and –

In the time it took for those eyes to blink, Hiccup suddenly felt Toothless' overwhelming love for him, gratitude for all the work he'd put into helping him fly, and sincere hope that he would accept his new form and thrive in it. The moment didn't last, but the memory of it did. Hiccup stepped back, stunned by how real it had seemed.

At the same time, Toothless was forcibly struck by the near-panic in Hiccup's mind, his turmoil and sense of loss, his hope that this change wasn't permanent, and his heartsick desire to get home, torn by the knowledge that it would literally be the death of him. Burning bright, off in a corner, was his love for Toothless, dampened by confusion over why his best friend would have done this to him.

"Hiccup, I really do want the best for you, just like you've wanted the best for me. It may take some time for you to adjust to all this, but until then, can you trust me?"

Before Hiccup could answer, they heard a swishing, crashing noise. Astrid-the-dragon had stepped off the edge of the cliffs that lined the cove and tumbled to the ground. Hiccup ran over to her.

"Astrid, are you all right?" he asked, his voice full of concern.

She opened her eyes and saw a Night Fury staring down at her. She screamed and kicked him hard in the chest; he landed in a heap thirty feet away. "Oww, why would you _do_ that?" he moaned.

She stared at him suspiciously; she had heard that line, in that same tone, earlier in the day in this very cove. "Who are you?" she demanded.

"Astrid, it's me. Hiccup," he said.

"Is this some kind of dragon trick?" she asked. "If you're really Hiccup, then prove it."

"What would you accept as proof?" he replied. "I could tell you about that night, just before we started dragon training, when I got chased by a Monstrous Nightmare and let a bunch of Deadly Nadders get away. I could tell you about how I was beating you in dragon training, and how you called me a son of a half-troll, rat-eating... uhh, I don't think dragons have words for that part. I could tell you how, a few minutes ago, you and I were riding on Toothless' back, up in the clouds, and we didn't have a care in the world." He closed his eyes sadly. "I could tell you all that, but I won't, because it hurts too much. We're leaving all that behind. Probably forever."

"Forever?" she demanded. "You mean I'm _stuck_ in this horrible body, looking just like you, probably stuck with you and that other awful lizard for _life_ because our people would kill me on sight if they found me like this?"

"Thank you for summing that up," Hiccup said.

She leaped up and put her face near his. "Hiccup, please, tell him to change us back! We'll do anything! We'll give him fish, sheep, gold, whatever he wants! He's _got_ to change us back!"

"Astrid, I can't do that," Toothless said as he joined them. "Every dragon is born with the Power for one great transformation. Once it's used, it never comes back. Please believe me when I say, after a while, most people don't want to go back."

"It's a trick!" she almost shouted. "He's lying! He did it, so he can undo it! Hiccup, how can you trust a dragon?"

He gazed back at her. "I trust Toothless," was all he said.

"You would." She shook her head, then turned and glared at Toothless. "And you! Why did you do this to me? To us? You have a weird way of treating your so-called friends."

Toothless put his face right up to Astrid's and snarled. Her eyes went wide; she was still accustomed to thinking of dragons as being much bigger and stronger than she was, even though that was no longer the case. She backed off a step.

"Don't you ever, _ever_ question my friendship with Hiccup," he growled. "We have been through things together that you can't even guess at. The only reason you're even _alive_ is because he likes you. I don't give gifts like this –" he gestured at her with his paw "– to any random dragon-fighter, you know."

"If that's how you treat friends, I'd hate to see how you treat your enemies," she growled back, gaining some confidence.

He leaped at her, bowled her over, and laid one sharp-clawed foot on her throat. "My _enemies_ get disemboweled and left for the wolves to eat," he snarled. "I understand you're uncomfortable with the transformation, but –"

"Uncomfortable!" She rolled out from under his paw and stood, shaking. "You... don't... know... _anything!_"

"I know much, much more than you think I do," he growled back, but not sounding so angry. "How do you think _I_ became a Night Fury?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 4

A/N "Rus" is an old name for Russia, specifically the western parts where Vikings had an influence.

**o**

Hiccup looked at Toothless steadily, forcing his tortured mind to slow down and listen to what he was hearing. "Are you telling me," he finally said, "that you used to be a human? That a dragon transformed you just like you transformed us?"

Toothless nodded slowly. "It was a long time ago, a _long_ time ago. I lived in a village on a river, in a land called Rus. I was the third son of a father who lived for his bottle, and a mother who lived for any man she could get her hands on. I was a young, bold warrior, ready to take on the world. My name was... what was my name? Semyon. I never liked that name; I haven't even thought about it in years. I like 'Toothless' better, because it was given to me by someone who really cares about me.

"Anyway, one night, the dragons raided my village. I was out there in the dark, waving my spear and looking for something to kill, when something big and black caught me from behind and carried me off into the air. The rest, as you say, is history."

"Very touching," Astrid scoffed. "Why do you _do_ this transformation-thing to us? If you really want to hurt us, why not just burn us instead?"

"I don't _want_ to hurt you!" Toothless exclaimed. "If I wanted to hurt you, I could have done it twenty different ways by now. You just don't understand – this is the most amazing gift I could ever give you!"

"If it's a gift, I'm sorry, but I don't want it," she said, beginning to lose her composure. "Please take it back. I'll call it even; I'll never attack a Night Fury again. Please, I'm begging you, turn me back into what I should be!"

Toothless shook his head. "What's done is done. And there isn't much chance you'll meet any other Night Furies anyway, aside from the ones in this cove."

"Yeah, yeah, Night Furies are very rare, we get it," Hiccup said. "You've explained why _we_ ought to be so excited about this, but why is it so important to _you?_"

"I told you, it's a long story," Toothless answered.

"Well, if you're from Rus, then you must love telling long stories," Hiccup shot back. "We're not going anywhere tonight; we've got time to listen. I can't speak for Astrid, but I can't even _begin_ to come to terms with this if I don't know _all_ the reasons why."

"I'll _never_ come to terms with this," she half-sobbed. "Am I really as ugly as you are?"

"I resent that," Toothless growled. "We Night Furies are among the best-looking of all dragons, even if those silly Nadders do say otherwise. As you spend more time in your new body, you'll get used to it, and you'll realize what an awesomely hot babe you are in the dragon world."

Astrid's eyes went to angry slitted pupils. "How _dare_ you talk to me that way!" Without thinking, she blew a small, bright blue fireball at him. It knocked him sideways, but he stayed on his feet. She looked shocked at what she had just done. He gazed at her evenly.

"Very good, Astrid. You're starting to tap into your dragon instincts already. Of course, I'm going to have to teach you how to control your fires, just like I'll have to teach you how to fly."

"You can teach us all that in the morning, Toothless," Hiccup cut in. "Right now, you owe us a long story."

"Fine." Toothless lay down in the grass and crossed his front paws. Hiccup sat in front of him; Astrid stood a few feet away.

"Dragons lay eggs once a year, as you may or may not know. A female Nadder usually clutches three or four dragonets at a time; a Gronckle can crank out a dozen or more. They need that many to replace their losses, mostly at the hands of men. But a Night Fury lays only one egg each year. Compare that with how often we get shot at by angry Vikings with sharp objects, and you can see we've got a population problem. That's why we're so rare.

"As I said, every dragon has the Power to make one great transformation in his life. Most dragons use that Power to heal themselves of some terrible injury, or to heal a friend. But we Night Furies have to use our Power to make other Night Furies. It's the only way we can keep ourselves from dying out. Every Night Fury has the solemn duty to create another dragon just like himself. Humans are our only candidates; turning another dragon into a Night Fury never works out well, and no other creature is intelligent enough."

"So when we both went riding on you, that was a two-for-one deal you couldn't resist," Hiccup said.

Toothless nodded. "Yes, it was a rare chance to pull ahead in the population race. But it was much more than that. Astrid, I can't be dispassionate about this, because I'm so close to Hiccup, but if you asked any other dragon, they'd say you're the more valuable of the two of you."

"Why? Because I'm a warrior and he's not?"

"No, because you're a female and he's not," Toothless continued. "We don't carry off just anybody, you know. The weak, the fearful, the brittle – they never survive the transformation. Their minds break and they go insane. We take only the brave and the strong. That means warriors. I don't have to tell you, there aren't many female warriors, and we almost never get a clean shot at them. We need every strong, brave female we can find, because we desperately need female Night Furies. We have _got_ to have that one egg every year, from as many sources as possible."

"How many Night Furies are there?" Hiccup asked suddenly.

"Very, very few," Toothless answered, flicking his tail back and forth. "We never get all together, so there's never an accurate nose count, but I'd be surprised if there were more than twenty of us in the whole world. It's very possible that we three are all that's left."

Astrid's eyes had narrowed again. "So we're just breeding stock to you? I'm some kind of brood mare, and Hiccup is going to be my stallion?" She formed a mental picture of Hiccup as a human, tried to apply the word "stallion" to him, and laughed in spite of herself.

"Astrid, I don't know if it was luck or destiny that put you and Hiccup on my back at the same time tonight. But you were both there, you were both well-qualified for the transformation, and I did what I had to do. I _know_ Hiccup will be better off; he'll admit it once he thinks it over. With you, it's not so clear. But for the race of Night Furies, it was a complete win. We gained a female, we pulled ahead by one in the population race, we –"

"You mean, by two," Hiccup corrected him.

Toothless hung his head. "No, by one," he said very softly. "Now that you can't ride me, I can't fly any more. That means I can't hunt for food, and I can't escape if the Vikings come after me. My end is certain now; it's just a matter of time. By giving you everything, I gave up... well, everything."

They stared at him, shocked into silence.


	5. Chapter 5

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 5

A/N "Muspelheim" is the mythical Norse realm of fire.

**o**

"Toothless, you... you're giving your life away so we can be dragons?" Hiccup shook his head in shock. "No! It doesn't have to be that way! We can bring you food, we can look out for you –"

"Don't believe him, Hiccup! He's lying somewhere." Astrid glared at Toothless, who looked back with an unreadable expression.

"Why are you saying that?" Hiccup asked.

"We already know he told one lie! He said they only transform the brave and the strong. So what are _you_ doing here?" She hated to put it that way, but she had to have an answer.

"You don't even know him," Toothless interrupted, almost sadly, it seemed to Hiccup. "Strength and courage can't always be seen with the eye. There is a strength in him that you've never seen. How else could he have stayed true to himself all these years, against a village that wished he would either conform or go away?"

Astrid had no answer. She gestured with her head that she wanted to talk to Hiccup privately. Toothless took a drink from the lagoon as they stepped away.

"He really must hate us, to pay that high a price to get us like this," Astrid spat.

"No, that shows how important this is to him," Hiccup said. "He's not lying about his own condition; that's obvious. And if he'd pay that high a price to transform us, then the rest of his story has to be true, too. Why is it so hard for you to believe him?"

"Because he's a dragon!" she exclaimed. Hiccup didn't laugh, but his eyes sparkled the way they did when he was about to say something sarcastic. "Is this some kind of a joke to you?" she demanded. "Our parents just became at war with us. Figure out which side you're on!"

"I think we're all on the same side here, Astrid," Hiccup said. "And if you can't believe Toothless because he's a dragon, where does that leave you and me? Just in case you didn't notice, we're dragons too."

"I am _not_ a dragon!" she exploded. "I'm Astrid Hofferson, and I'm a Viking and I'm a warrior, and I'm _stuck_ in the wrong body, thanks to your mystical dragon, but I still know who I am! Do you? I didn't ask for this! Did you? How can you be so ready to trust him after what he's done to us?"

"Two reasons," Hiccup answered. "One, I've already trusted him with my life several times, and unlike us, he hasn't changed. Two, he's proved it to me."

"Proved it? How?" Astrid demanded suspiciously.

Hiccup suddenly walked up close to her. "Look in my eyes for a second." She did –

She wasn't expecting an open window into Hiccup's emotions, but that's what she got. She saw his longing for home, his love for Toothless, his attraction to her, a mix of fear and curiosity about his new dragon body, his ongoing hurt that his father didn't love him and his friends didn't like him and his village didn't accept him... she saw it all.

Hiccup was physically knocked backwards by the impact of her emotions. She was a cauldron of hate for all dragons, resentment against Toothless in particular, the beginnings of mistrust toward Hiccup, fear of not measuring up to the village's expectations of her, homesickness, a desperate longing for her own body, utter disgust for her current one, and a growing terror that she might be stuck like this for life.

"Whoa." She blinked and steadied herself. "What _was_ that?"

"Toothless calls it TrueSight. He says it's something dragons do all the time. He did that with me, and that's how I know he's telling the truth. If you still don't believe me, he'll do a TrueSight with you, and then you'll know."

"I can't do that. Not with him," she said decisively. "I mean, he's not a person, not like we are. He's not getting into _my_ head like that. Hiccup... is it really that bad? The way we all treated you in the village, I mean?"

He hung his head. "I kind of got used to it."

"It didn't feel that way to me just now," she said. "It was more like an open wound. How can you live like that?"

"What other choices do I have?" he asked with a touch of anger. "Should I run away? Jump off a cliff? Run through the town reciting _Beowulf_ with nothing on but my helmet? None of those is going to make the village wake up one day and say, 'Oh, Hiccup, we were wrong about you! You really _are_ a Viking; here's a nice little sword, just your size; come be a warrior with us'!" He stopped to take a breath, and shook his head. "It's a shame I can't walk into the village looking like _this_; I might get some respect for the first time in my life! But while we're asking personal questions, why are you starting to mistrust me?"

"Who said I..." Her voice tapered off when she realized he'd seen her heart as clearly as she'd seen his. "There's just something _wrong_ about this whole thing. I feel like I'm walking through Muspelheim barefoot, and you're just, 'La-di-dah, I'm a dragon now.' You're getting over this too easily. Maybe Toothless cast a spell on you?"

"I can't disprove that," Hiccup said slowly. "But I trust him; he's already earned it ten times over. If you won't trust him, then you have to trust me, because if you don't trust either of us, then you're all alone in a world that you don't understand. I know how it feels to be all alone. You won't like it."

She considered that. "There isn't anything I could say to that. But if you _ever_ do that TrueSight thing to me again without warning me, I will hit you _so_ hard!"

"What's the matter? You're not used to being so honest?"

She whacked him with her tail. "_That's_ for... I don't know why!" She stalked off into the shadows.

"Boys, girls, I hate to spoil your fun, but it's been a long day," Toothless interrupted. "I'm going to get some sleep, and you should, too, because we're going to be busy tomorrow."

"Should I hang from a tree branch, like I saw you do that first night?" Hiccup asked.

"That's one way, but it takes some getting used to. You might prefer to curl up in the fork of a tree instead," Toothless said. "Caves are good if you can find one. Your last choice is to stay on the ground."

"Astrid, did you hear that?" Hiccup called. "Astrid?" He began to look for her, but Toothless dropped a paw on his tail and held him back.

"Let her be. She has to come to terms with this, her way. I knew you'd adjust quickly. Be patient with her."

"How did you know I'd adjust quickly?" Hiccup asked.

"You adjusted quickly to being friends with a dragon. You adjusted quickly to flying. You're strong like the grass that bends flat in a strong wind, but stands up straight as soon as the wind dies down."

"It's so weird, talking to you and understanding what you're saying," Hiccup said. "Weird, in a good way. Before we go to sleep... can we do that TrueSight thing again?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 6

The next morning, Hiccup unwound himself from his tree-fork nest and padded down to the water for a drink. He found Astrid there, looking sadly at her reflection. He sat down next to her and said nothing.

At last, she sighed and said, "I guess it could be worse. He might have turned me into a Hideous Zippleback or something." Hiccup nodded wordlessly, not wanting to say the wrong thing, and took his drink.

"Rise and shine," Toothless called from the other side of the water. "Dragon school is now in session, and today is all about flying lessons. We'll start with the take-off."

"When do we eat?" Hiccup asked.

"We eat when you learn how to fly and catch fish," Toothless replied matter-of-factly as he glided across the water to join them. "That won't be today, and it probably won't be tomorrow, but don't worry. Your new bodies can go without food a lot longer than a human can."

"You're starting to irritate me with all this talk about how much better off we are now," Astrid snarled. "If we're _that_ much better off, why do you have to keep telling us about it?"

"Because certain dragons in this cove are fighting their new nature, tooth and claw," Toothless answered. "You're used to seeing life from a human view, and you're overlooking the advantages of any other view, just because it's not what you're accustomed to."

"I am _not_ going to get accustomed to this... this body!" she snapped. "I am _going_ to find a way to go back to being _me!_" She stalked away angrily. Hiccup followed her.

"Astrid, whether you find a way or not, we _have_ to learn about these bodies we're in!" he said. "This isn't about giving up hope; it's about being able to feed ourselves and take care of ourselves." He stepped towards her. "We have to be able to –"

She pulled away violently. "No, you don't! You're not sticking your nose into _my_ emotions again!"

"I wasn't going to do that!" Hiccup protested. "Toothless says TrueSight only works if both of us are willing."

"Toothless says, Toothless says, Toothless says! When did we stop thinking for ourselves, Hiccup? When did we start taking orders from dragons?"

"No one is taking orders from anybody. But he's the only one who knows how these new bodies of ours work." He sat next to her, making a point of not looking in her eyes. "Astrid, my dad loves to tell about the time when he was a boy, and his father told him to beat his head against a rock. That rock split in two. But when I try it, all I ever get is a headache.

"I want to go home as badly as you do. If I could snap my fingers and get my body back, I would. But it looks like this is what we are. I want to eat, and I want to be able to get away in case our friends start throwing spears at us. I'm not going to be stubborn and beat my head against a rock. I'm going to learn what he's teaching us. I think you ought to do the same."

"Hiccup, I can't handle his condescending attitude."

"He _is_ a little condescending, but can you blame him? He's teaching us stuff that real dragons would have learned right after they hatched. We're like children to him, we know so little. And it's not like he's had much practice in running a school for dragon wannabe's."

"I do _not_ want to be a _dragon!_" she almost roared.

"You know what I mean. He's cutting us all kinds of slack; can you cut him some?"

"Oh, I'd love to 'cut him' some! If I only had my axe..."

Hiccup did something he never, ever imagined he would do. He raised a foreleg and gave Astrid a hard shove, knocking her off balance. "May I remind you, he isn't just our only hope for survival? He's also my best friend!"

Astrid sprang to her feet. Her teeth were bared, she was lashing her tail, her legs were tensed to leap at him. "Hiccup, if you ever, _ever_ do that again –"

"Good attack posture, Astrid," Toothless commented as he joined them. "But you need to tuck your wings in; you've left them half-out and vulnerable. Always protect your wings in a fight. Now let's get back to our flying lessons."

Most of Toothless' advice boiled down to "your body knows what to do; just start the motion and don't fight your own reflexes." After a few false starts, Hiccup proved to be a fast learner. By noon, he was gliding back and forth across the water with growing excitement, and while his landings were about as graceful as a Gronckle's, at least he wasn't crash-landing any more. Astrid was determined to keep her actions under her own conscious control, which meant she was fighting her body's instincts. It didn't go as smoothly for her.

"Astrid, I don't mean to be harsh, but you're being a control freak over your own body," Toothless told her at one point. "Some aspects of flying are hard work, but this is supposed to be the easy part. Relax a little!"

"Relax a little," she muttered under her breath. "When I've got my own body back and my own voice back, when I'm back in my own home with my own family, and when the only dragons around are the wooden ones guarding our front doors, _then_ I'll relax."

As the sun was setting, Hiccup took his first experimental flight above the trees. He wasn't going very high, but he was flapping on his own, turning and banking with fairly good control, and apparently having the time of his life. As the sun dipped below the horizon, he coasted in for an ungainly landing.

"Oh, baby!" he shouted. "What a feeling! Toothless, I thought it was great flying with you, but flying solo... _wow!_ I don't know if I..." He glanced at Astrid and stopped.

"What, Hiccup?" Astrid demanded. "You don't know if you 'what'?"

Hiccup was suddenly sober. "I was about to say, I don't know if I could ever go back to living and moving on the ground all the time."

Astrid let out an explosive, angry grunt and stomped away. The other two watched her go.

"It's just like I promised you," Toothless said. "You're starting to think and react like a dragon, and that makes everything easier. You're making very good progress, considering you just grew your wings at this time yesterday. Can you help me out of this saddle harness? I don't think I need it any more."

Together, they managed to remove the straps and rods. Some of the leather had to be bitten off. Hiccup used his mouth to toss the saddle onto a rock; he'd worked so hard on it, he didn't want it to be ruined by leaving it on the ground. He looked around. Astrid still hadn't returned.

"How can we get her to understand?" Hiccup asked sadly.

"You can drag her by the tail, but all that will teach her is how to go backwards," Toothless counseled him. "When a dragon hatches out of its egg, its first instinct is to learn how to fly, even though it can't fly right away. You've got that same instinct; you got a taste of flight, and now you don't just _want_ more – you _need_ it. I don't think you'd be offended if I said you were born to be a dragon, and all I did was make it possible." He peered into the darkness and shook his head.

"Astrid doesn't have that desire, my friend. Maybe it's hard for her to break the bonds to her old life because her old life was pretty good. She has a full set of dragon instincts, and they'll keep nudging her in the right direction. It's just a question of time."

"Do you _have_ that much time, bud?" Hiccup asked sadly.

"Even the oldest and wisest of us can't see the future," Toothless replied. "We could stay here for months, or my time could run out tomorrow. If it did, I know I've had a fine life, I've had some fun and some excitement, I've done my duty to the nest and the other Night Furies, and I've known a true friend. That's not bad, for a dragon."

Hiccup was too torn up at the thought of losing his friend. He said nothing. He just rested his forehead against Toothless' head. They stayed in that position, without saying a word, for several minutes before turning and finding places to spend the night.

"There's got to be a way," Toothless heard him mutter.


	7. Chapter 7

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 7

Toothless spent the next morning teaching Hiccup the basics of fire control. They practiced shooting fireballs at large rocks, leaving scorch marks all over the cove. The purpose of this lesson was so Hiccup could go fishing. Again, he learned quickly.

"Remember, look for large fish," Toothless advised him. "Small ones are fine if you're just feeding yourself. But if you're bringing them back for someone else, you can only carry one or two at a time, so they might as well be big ones."

"I am _not_ eating raw fish," Astrid stated flatly.

"Fine," nodded Toothless. "You saw everything I taught Hiccup about fire control; you can cook your fish any way you like. But while he's out getting some lunch for us, you and I are going to work on your flying some more. It's not fair to make him do all the work."

That last comment stung Astrid's pride. She resolved to do better, just to shut Toothless up. At first, she was trying too hard and making things worse. But after an hour, she finally understood what he meant by "don't fight the dragon." When Hiccup returned for the first time, she was gliding easily and making good landings.

Hiccup was excited. "It worked just like you said it would, Toothless!" he shouted as he dropped them a twenty-pound cod. "Shoot a quick fireball, stun the fish, pick them up when they float to the surface. I'm going back for more!" He turned on a wingtip and flew back out to sea.

Toothless carved a line down the middle of the fish with his claw, and tore it in half. "One for me and one for you," he said to Astrid, who took her share without comment. She deep-flamed a patch of ground and laid the half-fish on it to broil. Toothless tore his half into smaller pieces and swallowed them raw.

"What frightens you the most, Astrid?" She stared at her fish and refused to answer. "Is it being cut off from people? Losing your beauty? Being attacked by friends?"

"It's losing who I am," she snapped. "I've spent my entire life learning who I am, what I'm supposed to do and when I'm supposed to do it, what people expect of me and what I can expect from them. Now, that's all gone, and I've got _nothing_ to replace it with. I had a culture and a place in that culture. Now, I look at my reflection in the water and I see _what_ I am, but I don't know _who_ I am!"

"That's simple. You're Astrid. That's never going to change. Your values will shift a bit as you spend more time around dragons, but the things that make you special? They won't change."

"That sounds nice and simple, Toothless, but... this 'spending time around dragons' thing. That makes me nervous, too. What does a Night Fury _do?_"

"If you can wait until Hiccup comes back, I'll tell you both what a Night Fury does." They waited about ten minutes until their friend returned with another large cod. Toothless waved for him to join them.

"I'm glad you're having fun, Hiccup, but rest your wings for a few minutes before you go out there again. You've never done this before; don't overtax yourself on your first day in the sky. Enjoy some of this fish you've brought us."

Hiccup swallowed his pieces of fish whole and raw, the way he'd seen Toothless do it so many times. Astrid squirmed at the sight. "Yuck! How can you _do_ that?"

"That's how dragons eat," he said, surprised. "I can't use a knife and fork." He held up a paw. "See? No opposable thumb."

"You really _are_ turning into a dragon," she said with distaste.

"Astrid asked me a good question while you were away," Toothless cut in. "She wanted to know what a Night Fury does.

"When we're off duty, we're the judges of the nest. Other dragons come to us to settle disputes and solve hard problems. They know we're fair and impartial because we're the smartest, and because none of them can offer us anything as a bribe. We're loved, respected, and looked up to. We can go anywhere in the nest, any time, and get a warm welcome. They all love us because they know we protect them unselfishly.

"In battle, we guard the other dragons. They go in and grab the food for the Mother, and fight the close-quarters battles. We go head-to-head with the heavy weapons, the torches, the big targets that affect the whole battle. We never take prey; we keep ourselves light and free to strike quickly."

"You're talking about raiding human villages, like Berk," Astrid said heatedly.

"That's where the food is," Toothless replied.

"You're talking about turning us into killers," she went on.

Toothless lowered his head to look her in the eyes. "You already _are_ a killer. You've spent your whole life training and practicing to be a killer. It's just a question of who you choose to kill."

Hiccup cut in. "Are you saying we're going to change so much that we won't have a problem killing people?"

"The first raid is the hardest," Toothless said. "You'll bend over backwards, go to absurd lengths, even take dangerous risks, to avoid shooting a human. But when you see one of your dragon friends taken down by a net or a spear, you'll know what to do."

"Will we have to raid Berk?" Hiccup asked.

After a long pause, Toothless said, "Until Berk is in your comfort zone, you can leave the group and do some fishing or hunting while the others do the raiding. Bring back some food to show that you weren't wasting your time. Or maybe they'll send you to some other village. The dragons will understand. The day will eventually come when Berk will be just one more human village to you."

"You don't seriously think we'll ever feel good about attacking our own town, our own people?" Astrid asked in disbelief.

"You're going to outlive everyone in that town by a huge margin," Toothless replied. "In eighty or a hundred years, do you think the people you know will still be there? They'll be a bunch of strangers to you. Berk will be just another village." That brought silence to the group.

"It all sounds so... cold-blooded," Hiccup finally said.

"I hate that term," Toothless replied. "We dragons are warm-blooded; I don't know where people got the idea we weren't. But I know what you meant, and all I can say is, we do what we have to do. The Mother demands it."

"What's this 'Mother' you keep mentioning?" Hiccup asked, leaning forward.

Toothless took a deep breath. "The Mother rules the nest. She is huge and terrible; she could swallow all three of us at once and still be hungry. She has the power to make us go out, and the power to call us back. If we don't bring enough food to satisfy her... some of us get eaten. Her rule is simple: _bring_ food or _be_ food. We all avoid her if we possibly can."

"Is that why you raid our villages?" Hiccup wondered. "Just so you can feed this mother dragon?"

"Most of us don't even like the taste of the animals we take from the villages," Toothless nodded. "Once she is satisfied, that's when we can hunt for our own food. No one likes the Mother, but we have no power against her calls."

"What happens if she calls while we're all still here?" Astrid asked quietly.

"When she calls, you'll have to go. You'll know the way. I can't fly, so I'll be here when you come back."

Hiccup understood what he meant. He would stay here, unable to find food and unable to escape a Viking hunting party.

Helpless.


	8. Chapter 8

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 8

A/N To the many readers who have favorited and/or followed this story, and especially to the reviewers: thank you! The pressure has been building, and this is the chapter that blows the lid off. I hope you like it, but you'd better fasten your flying harnesses – it's going to be a wild ride.

**o**

"...and that's how dragon society functions. Any questions?"

Hiccup had one. "Toothless, how does that transformation thing work?"

Toothless sighed. "You and your curiosity. I hope you never change, but sometimes...

"The transformation works like this. You blow out a special fireball, which flattens into a thin disc; the mechanics are different for each dragon species. You consciously dump all your Power into it. Then you focus your mind completely on the change you want to see happen. When you make contact with the disc, you change. It happens quickly, but it takes your mind a minute or so to recover from the side effects, so it's best done either on the ground or at high altitude."

"That sounds pretty simple," Hiccup commented.

"That's just the big picture; it's a _lot_ more complicated to actually _do_ it," Toothless replied. "Changing one thing into another isn't an easy process. I'll start explaining it to you when we get some slack time; it's not something you need to know right away."

"Can that change be anything at all?" Astrid was suddenly very interested.

"Anything except to reverse the results of another transformation. When Power opposes Power, you get the biggest fireball you can imagine. If you tried to use your Power to turn yourselves back into humans, you'd destroy yourselves, and half of this cove as well. Please don't try it."

"So we really are stuck like this," she said, her head drooping.

"Is it really that bad for you?" Hiccup asked compassionately.

Her eyes narrowed. "How could you ask a question like that? You left _nothing_ behind! I had a family! I had friends! I had a life and a future! I came _this_ close to winning dragon training! If it wasn't for you and your cheating tricks, I would have been the hero of the village!"

"They were _not_ cheating tricks!" Hiccup retorted angrily. "I just learned more about dragons than anybody else, thanks to Toothless, that's all! It was like knowing a shot limit, or finding a blind spot. Are those things cheating?"

His voice softened. "I'm sorry about the people you left behind. Like you said, I left nobody, or almost nobody, and I'm sorry enough about that. And I'm sorry you had a life and you can't go back to it. I left my life behind, too. But I'll be honest – I'm not even a little bit sorry about that.

"Look at me, Astrid. Don't look at me and see a dragon; look at me and see Hiccup! I can fly! I can make fire and put it right where I want it! I can catch fish, and do things I never even dreamed of! _And I can do them without messing up twenty times first!_ Can you even imagine how that makes me feel? Me, Hiccup – I'm doing things _right!_ For the first time in my _life!_ It's like a dream!

"You never had to struggle like that. You're _used_ to doing things right. You worked and you trained and you practiced, and you became the town's best young warrior! I did the best I could, and I was never anything but... Hiccup."

He took a deep breath. "Toothless was right. I miss my dad and some of my friends, but I don't want to go back. This is a better life than anything Berk ever offered me. I know you don't feel that way, but please stop talking about Berk and being human as if that's all there is."

Her mouth fell open. "I can't believe what I'm hearing! You've been a dragon for, what, _two days?_ And you're ready to leave behind everything you've ever known? Are you _serious?_"

"Yes," he said emphatically. "I've been Hiccup the Useless for a lot longer than two days, so I know what I'm giving up. I don't know everything about being a Night Fury, but it _has_ to be better than what I used to be. Go ahead and try to find your way back, but if you find a way, I'm not taking it. I'm a dragon now. I can be competent, confident, successful... I might even be happy."

When Astrid had first met Toothless in this cove a few days ago, Hiccup had introduced them as though they ought to be friends. She had given him a shocked, angry, betrayed look, just before she ran away. Somehow, her Night Fury face conveyed that same look to him now, just before she ran away again.

"Dat da-dah, I'm dead," he sighed.

"She won't leave the cove," Toothless told him. "Give her time."

Hiccup turned to face him squarely. "We might not have that much time! The Vikings could find us here any minute, and then what do we do? Or what if this Mother dragon decides today's the day to call all the dragons in? You say I'll know the way, but what do I do when I get there? Just fly in and say, 'Hi, Mom, I'm home'?"

He paced back and forth. "Astrid can barely fly, and you can't fly at all. That leaves a lot on my shoulders, and I'm still _totally_ new at this."

"You may be new at it, but you learn very fast," Toothless answered. "Amazingly fast. Everything I've taught you just comes naturally to you. There isn't much more for me to teach; it's just a question of you practicing and working out the details. Like you said – from now on, I'm treating you like a dragon and nothing else, because that's what you really are. Congratulations."

"Gee, thanks, I won't let it go to my head," Hiccup said. "But speaking of details, can you glide across the cove again? I want to watch how you use your sub-wings in a glide."

"Okay, we've got some time." Toothless climbed as high on the rock walls as he could, turned, and launched himself into the air. He knew he'd be fine as long as he glided straight and level, but as soon as he tried to turn, he'd lose control and crash. He looked for a landing zone that was right in front of him.

He noticed Hiccup staring at him intently. Suddenly, the other dragon shot out a blue fireball. What was he doing? The ball turned into a colorful, crackling disc right in front of him. _Oh, no._

He couldn't turn. He couldn't climb. He couldn't do anything except fly right into it. Was Hiccup turning him back into a human to destroy him, to get revenge on Astrid's behalf? _He doesn't know how to control_ –

His senses were overwhelmed by the overload. He was aware of falling into the water, so he held his breath until he could think straight. And when he could think straight, he was furious.

He stormed up to Hiccup, shaking the water off as he went. "You _idiot!_ What were you trying to _do?_ Do you think the Power is some kind of toy for you to play with? It's meant to help dragonkind, you get _one_ chance, _you're_ playing around without knowing what you're doing, and now you've wasted it! You did _nothing_ with it, and it's gone forever!" He lashed his tail angrily.

His TAIL!

He spun in shock, and stared at the two perfect tail fins that gracefully fanned open and closed.

"I hope you like it, bud," Hiccup said shakily. "You did say dragons use the Power to heal serious injuries, in themselves or in a friend."

Toothless turned back to face Hiccup. He was speechless. He looked back at his tail again for a moment. Finally, he asked, "How did you _do_ that? I only gave you the broadest overview..."

"It's like you said. This stuff comes naturally to me. I figured it was worth a shot."

Toothless shook his head in amazement, mingled with a bit of dismay. "You were supposed to use the Power to make a new Night Fury."

"I did, sort of," Hiccup said. "You thought you were as good as dead because you couldn't fly, so now you're kind of alive again. Isn't that almost as good as making a new one?"

They stared at each other in wide-eyed silence. Hiccup expected his friend to leap into the air and fly, but he just stared. At last, Hiccup nodded and opened himself for TrueSight. Toothless' only emotion was a soft-solid wall of gratitude, like the fog that fills Berk's harbor early on a summer morning, colored around the edges with amazement at Hiccup's achievement. Hiccup was mostly feeling relief. Relief that he'd taken a chance and succeeded, and also relief that he had righted an old wrong.

"What old wrong was that?" Toothless asked when the moment passed.

Hiccup braced himself. "Buddy, there's something you need to know about how you lost your tail."

Toothless smiled. "I knew that. I always knew. It wasn't a coincidence that you were the only one who came looking for me in the woods."

"And you weren't mad at me? You never..."

"That was in the middle of a war," Toothless answered softly. "We were trying our best to destroy each other, and sometimes people get hurt that way. I knew it was nothing personal. When you offered me peace in the middle of that war, the least I could do was forgive."

Hiccup leaned forward until his head rested against Toothless' head. "Bud, if I'd known you, I never would have taken that shot."

Toothless closed his eyes. "But if you didn't take the shot, you never would have known me."

They remained in that position for a very long time.

Then, suddenly, Toothless grinned and broke the contact. "Okay, hot shot! Now I can give you a _real_ flying lesson! Catch me if you can!" The two Night Furies sprang into the air at once, and from then until nightfall, they whipped and darted back and forth so quickly, it was impossible to tell which was which. From her sulking place among the trees, Astrid watched them and felt a quick pang of envy.

Hiccup was quite overmatched in their games of aerial tag, but he watched his friend closely. His technical mind could appreciate how the slight twist of a wingtip, or a change in the angle of the leading edge of a wing, could give Toothless his unmatched maneuverability. He began adding skill to his flying instincts. As the sun went down that night, Toothless was still the better flier, but he clearly had a rival.

But for Toothless, it wasn't about winning or losing, or even about teaching. It was just about the sheer, exuberant, lost-and-found joy of _flying!_


	9. Chapter 9

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 9

Astrid was flying better, although she hadn't caught up with Hiccup yet. The two of them had had a quiet talk the previous night, and now they told Toothless what they wanted to do.

"I think it's a bad idea," Toothless said. "Really bad. No Viking is ever supposed to see a Night Fury, you could get hurt, they probably won't believe you, and what good will it do?"

"I don't know about that, Toothless," Hiccup replied. "The last time a Viking saw a Night Fury, it didn't turn out so bad, did it?"

"One point for Hiccup. I still don't think they'll believe you."

"We'll _make_ them believe us," Astrid said earnestly. "We know these people; we know how to talk to them. And I have to do this, I really do."

"Fine," Toothless muttered. "I suppose I ought to follow you, just in case you make a mess of things and need help."

"We'd be glad for the backup, as long as they don't see you," Hiccup nodded. "It's going to be hard enough to explain ourselves, never mind you."

Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut had finished the arduous hike up to The Cliffs, their favorite spot to camp out on the rare nights when they had nothing else to do. The rocky promontory had a name on the map, but to seven generations of Viking teens, it was known only as The Cliffs. It was a flat spot on the coast north of Berk village, with a charming view of the sunset and plenty of room for camp fires and tents. They'd been planning this trip for a week.

"This is going to be awesome!" Snotlout said.

"It's not the same without Astrid," Ruffnut complained.

"She'll turn up pretty soon," Tuffnut said. "She probably sprained her ankle and it's taking her a while to get back home. Or something like that."

"I kind of miss Hiccup, too," Fishlegs observed. They all glared at him through narrowed eyes. "Well, I don't mean I 'miss him' miss him, I just... notice when he's not around." They all agreed on that. They pitched their tents, spread out their sleeping rolls, and gathered firewood for a fire. The sun had set and the stars were out by the time they were ready.

"Okay, who brought the flint and steel?" Ruffnut asked. They all looked at each other blankly.

"It's not my fault; I brought it last time," Lout said.

"If you think I'm hiking all the way back down to get that," Tuff replied, "and then hiking all the way back up again, you're crazy!"

Ruff began to lose her cool. "Well, somebody has to –" They suddenly heard a soft "pfft" sound, and a tiny blue ball of light shot out of the darkness into their campfire. There was a flash, and the wood was blazing instantly.

"What... was that?" Snotlout was on his feet in a moment, looking nervously into the darkness.

"Something weird is happening here," Tuffnut quavered.

Suddenly, Fishlegs was frantically pointing and mouthing the words, "Over there! Over there!" They looked, and saw the light of the campfire reflected in two huge pale-green eyes. They backed away, but then they heard a twig break behind them, and there was another pair of eyes.

"We're surrounded," Lout whispered, looking very scared.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Ruff hissed back. "Fishlegs, what are they?"

"Uhhh, they're big, and black, and... they're staring at us."

"That's not very helpful," Tuff whispered.

One of the creatures made a mournful sound and slowly advanced toward them. The four were close to panic before it stopped and extended a foreleg.

"It's sharpening its claws on the rock before it kills us!" Snotlout moaned in terror.

"No, it's..." Fishlegs stared. "It's writing! It's scratching runes on the rocks!" They all stared.

I AM HICCUP

They heard scratching from behind them, and chanced a look back. The other creature was also marking the rocks.

I AM ASTRID

"Okay, this just went from 'weird' to 'totally weird'," Tuff noted.

"There's just one problem," Fishlegs said to no one in particular. "That isn't Hiccup and Astrid. It's two big black things."

Both creatures scratched out another message. The one that called itself Hiccup wrote –

DRAGON MAGIC

while the other one had written –

IT'S US, YOU IDIOTS!

"Okay, that _could_ be Astrid," Ruff decided.

"Wait a minute!" Fishlegs exclaimed. "He said dragon magic! That means they're dragons! They might be..." His voice dropped to a whisper. "...Night Furies!"

"O-h-h-h... we are _so_ dead," Snotlout moaned.

"They aren't acting dangerous," Fishlegs observed. "They're being kind of tame and nice, for big black things."

"Or it's all a trick," Tuff scoffed. "How can we trust a dragon?"

The Astrid dragon made an exasperated snort and wrote –

RUFF, TUFF, HOW WOULD I KNOW  
YOUR NAMES IF IT WASN'T ME?

"I'm almost convinced," Ruff said. "I can't figure it out, but that really could be her. Somehow."

"Now we're up to 'beyond weird'," Tuff noted.

"But how do we know about the other one?" Lout objected. "Hey, black thing, if you're really Hiccup, prove it by messing something up."

The Hiccup dragon shook its head. It backed away a step and wrote again –

TELL OUR PARENTS WE ARE OKAY  
TELL THEM WE RAN AWAY  
WE WON'T BE COMING BACK

"That's not going to go over well," Ruff said.

"At least it's a message," Fishlegs added. "The Hoffersons have been so worried about her! Maybe they won't worry... quite so much. The chief will be glad to get some news, too."

"They want us to lie for them?" Tuff demanded. "Why can't we just tell everybody the truth?"

"For one thing, nobody would believe us," his sister rebutted. She was about to give him a shove when they saw the Hiccup dragon scratching again. It drew a rough picture of a Night Fury. Then, with three swift strokes, it drew a spear plunged into it.

"Yeah, that would be bad," Fishlegs agreed. "So, uhhh, Hiccup, what are you going to do?"

FLY AWAY  
DO DRAGON THINGS  
GOODBYE

That brought silence. Slowly, fearfully, Ruffnut stepped toward the Astrid dragon. She stopped just out of arm's length. The dragon's eyes grew very wide.

"Astrid, if that's really you, I'm going to miss you." The dragon let out a low, sad moan. "Be careful, and... please be careful." She held up a hand in a farewell wave. The dragon held up a paw in a matching gesture.

Hesitantly, Ruffnut made a fist and held it out. The dragon reached forward and gently batted her fist, in an imitation of Astrid and Ruff's fist-bump.

"Oh, gods, it _is_ her!" Ruff turned away, hoping the night would hide her tears from her brother's malicious gaze.

Fishlegs watched to see if anyone would approach the Hiccup dragon. When no one else did, he started to take a step, but both dragons turned away, leaped into the air, and were quickly lost in the night.


	10. Chapter 10

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 10

The three Night Furies flew effortlessly across the sea together. They had spent a few more days in the cove to make sure Astrid's flying skills were up to the task before them. Her reluctance to do anything dragon-like had finally run into another trait of hers that swept all before it: competitiveness. The idea that Hiccup had become a much better flier than her was intolerable. She had to work harder at things that came naturally to him. But the same drive that had led her to hours-long axe-throwing sessions in the woods also led her to hours-long flight practice sessions in the cove, and a human observer would see no difference in their flying skills now. The trio had launched themselves into the sky early that morning, leaving the cove behind forever.

Their destination: the dragons' nest.

"We have to talk about names," Toothless called. "Dragons don't use names like humans do. Our names for each other are descriptive; they can even change if the dragon changes. You're going to meet dragons with names like Nadder-blue-white-and-black-laughs-loud, or Gronckle-brown-spot-sleeps-in-the-morning. If you don't know a dragon's name, just call them by what they look like; no one gets offended by that. It takes all the stress out of remembering names."

"That's a mouthful," Astrid said.

"It would be, if you were speaking Norse or some other human language. But our dragon voices are so expressive, and our ears are so sensitive, we can say all that in the time it would take a human to say 'Hiccup'."

"What about our names?" Hiccup asked.

"My name has always been Night-fury, because I was the only one in the nest. Hiccup, I think we'll call you New-night-fury, and Astrid will be Small-night-fury. If anyone asks where you came from or where you've spent your lives, tell the truth."

"It won't upset them to have _humans_ in their midst?" Astrid wondered.

"They know where most Night Furies come from, and you aren't humans any more. Besides, it's easier to remember the truth than to try to keep a bunch of lies and deceptions straight. I don't know why people think dragons can't be trusted; we don't do much lying."

"I'm not surprised," Hiccup agreed. "Half a second of TrueSight would give it all away."

"True," Toothless said, "Astrid, I'm not pressuring you, but is there a reason you refuse to share TrueSight with me?"

"I'm just not comfortable with it," she said. "The whole idea, not just you. Feelings are... personal."

"I understand what you mean," Hiccup nodded, "but it's kind of liberating to let yourself be truly known, fears and all. I'm not sure that keeping our true selves secret from the world is such a great idea."

"You would take the dragons' side," she muttered.

"It's a good side to be on, seeing how you're a dragon," Toothless added. "Your position is like you've been given an extra set of eyes, and you're keeping them tightly closed."

"As long as I can see where I'm going, I'll be fine," she said.

Toothless suddenly banked down and away from them. "Tuna!" he shouted. A moment later, he fired a blast into the sea below them. It burst just below the surface, sending up a fountain of spray. A few moments later, several large fish floated to the surface, stunned.

"Each of you, grab one!" he shouted as he skimmed the water, reached down with his front feet, and nabbed a fish for himself. "These will get us into the nest with no problems."

"I thought Night Furies never brought food back," Hiccup asked as he circled.

"Any time a group of dragons enters the nest, the Mother may expect a gift," Toothless explained. "When we're part of a larger raiding group, the others bring the food. But when it's just us three, we better bring something ourselves, just to be safe." The other two siezed their fish, and they flew on.

They finally approached a scary-looking island, wreathed in fog and surrounded by odd-looking rock formations. "Finding the lower entrance is not easy," Toothless warned them. "Slow down and fly behind me in single file. We'll probably have to do this several times before you learn the way yourselves."

Hiccup was reminded of the rocks he and Toothless had barely avoided hitting on their first flight together. He tried to look for landmarks, but all the rocks looked the same. They swooped and curved around eight or nine huge stones before the island itself came into view.

"Here we go!" Toothless called. "Stay close to me until we land. If the Mother comes up to check you out, fly straight and level. Don't do anything to draw her attention." They swept into a small crevice in a sheer rock wall, and plunged into a rough tunnel that opened out into the nest itself.

The nest was a huge cave, lit by a dim red light. Ledges and small caves lined the walls and several great spires that rose up from below. The floor of the cavern couldn't be seen; it was covered in a thick yellow smoke. Above them, like an enormous chimney, was the empty cone of a volcano.

The ledges and caves were occupied by dragons of all kinds. Hiccup and Astrid pulled closer to Toothless for safety, even though they realized the foolishness of dragons depending on a dragon to protect them from dragons. Hiccup was suddenly struck by the enormity of the changes he had already accepted in his life. He was completely surrounded by creatures he had been raised to hate and trained to kill, and he was hoping they would accept him.

He felt like all their eyes were on him. As though reading his thoughts, Toothless called, "Take a good look! This is your village, this is your tribe, and these are your people." He dropped his fish into the yellow smoke; the other two did likewise.

After a moment, the smoke stirred. Hiccup stifled a scream as a dragon head bigger than his father's house rose out of the smoke. It looked around for a moment, fastened its eyes on him and Astrid, and stretched closer to them.

"_Straight_ and _level!_" Toothless reminded him. Hiccup didn't dare look at that huge head, so he stared fixedly at Toothless. He heard and felt the huge thing take several sniffs; then it descended back into the smoke.

"She was checking your scent to see if she recognized you," Toothless explained. "Whatever she was testing you for, you passed. Let's land over there." He glided to an empty ledge and landed lightly. Hiccup joined him, with his usual less-than-graceful landing, and Astrid landed a moment later, as easily as Toothless did.

"Hiccup, does your father seriously think he can take this place?" she asked.

"There's a lot he doesn't know," Hiccup nodded. "A _lot_."

Suddenly they were joined on the ledge by a fluttering blue Deadly Nadder. "Night-fury, you're back! We hadn't seen you in weeks; we thought something bad happened!"

"I had a little trouble, but I'm back now, Nadder-all-blue-talks-all-the-time. I brought some friends, too."

"Ohhh! My goodness – I can't believe it! Two more Night Furies! This is the best news I've heard all year! I'm so happy to meet you, uhhh..."

Hiccup decided it was time to start pretending he knew what he was doing. "I'm New-night-fury, and this is Small-night-fury. We're moving in, I guess."

"Well, I know you're going to like it here," the Nadder went on. "It's a safe nest with lots of room, and we all look out for each other, and... oh, I can't believe it! _Three_ Night Furies! This is going to change _everything!_ I need to go spread the news!" She flapped off toward a cluster of small caves.

"She'll take care of the introductions," Toothless said with a shrug. "News spreads fast in here. We'll probably start having company in a few minutes, and it won't let up for an hour or more, so catch your breath now."

Their first visitor was an old, fat Gronckle who nearly hit the wall when he landed. "What's this I hear about some new Night Furies?" he demanded.

"You're standing right next to them, Gronckle-grouchy-questions-everything. Say hello."

The fat dragon squinted, waddled over to them, and sniffed. "Never saw you before. Where are you from?"

_Here it comes, the moment of truth,_ Hiccup thought. "We're from Berk village."

"Village!" The Gronckle almost tripped over the word. "You mean you used to be humans?"

"Yes, we did. Tooth – I mean Night-fury transformed us."

"He got _two_ of you? That sounds like a story I'd like to hear. Maybe another day. But if he vouches for you, that's good enough for me. Welcome to the nest. Night-fury, it's good to see you back." The Gronckle turned and buzzed away.

He had barely left when three big Monstrous Nightmares appeared. One landed, forcing Hiccup and Astrid to make room on the ledge, while the other two flapped nearby. Hiccup was forcefully reminded that, if his ride with Toothless and Astrid hadn't ended so abruptly, he had been due to kill a Monstrous Nightmare in the ring. Now he was staring up at one as the bigger dragons checked them out.

"It's true what the Nadder told us," one of them said in a rather young-sounding voice. "We've got three Night Furies now! _That'll_ give those Vikings something to think about! Hey, guys, welcome to the nest. It's kind of dark, but we're cool here. Most of us." The other two echoed his greeting; then they had to glide aside to make room for a small flock of Nadders who all wanted to land at once. A swarm of Gronckles hovered in the background, waiting their turn.

When they finally had a short break, Hiccup whispered to Toothless, "You weren't kidding about the visitors! These guys must be desperate for news if they think _I'm_ interesting."

"They're desperate for safety," Toothless answered. "You have no idea how they look up to us. You're doing well, by the way. Just be honest, be yourselves, and enjoy the attention. It only gets better."

Hiccup couldn't help thinking, _Since when did being myself make __anything__ better?_ "How are you holding up, Astrid? I mean, Small-night-fury?"

"This is just so weird!" she exclaimed. "I spent my whole life training to kill dragons, and now they're welcoming me to their village! They seem so nice, too. Most of them, anyway. They're like people, only they're not."

"Hold on a minute." Hiccup saw something on the other side of the cavern that bothered him. Eight or nine young Nadders had formed a moving sphere around a small Gronckle, and whenever the rock-like dragon tried to escape, one of them would kick it or tail-slap it back into the middle. He'd been on the receiving end of that kind of bullying, and he hated it; he realized he also hated watching it. "Toothless, Astrid, I'll be right back." He stepped off the ledge and glided over to the other side.

He circled the sphere once, quickly, then landed on a nearby outcrop. All the young dragons were watching him, as were a few adults on adjacent ledges. "I don't like what I'm seeing," he began.

"We were just having a little fun," the Nadders' ringleader said.

"Were you having fun, Gronckle-in-the-middle?"

"Not much."

Hiccup looked at each of the Nadders in turn. "Why don't you find a game that makes everybody happy?"

After a moment, one of them said, "Hey, let's play follow-the-leader in the lower reaches!" The Nadders gracefully sped away. The young Gronckle watched them go, then turned back to Hiccup. "Thank you, New-night-fury."

"You're welcome. What's your real name?"

"Gronckle-short-tail-thinks-too-hard."

_Thinks too hard. The butt of all jokes. This dragon is just like me_. "Don't ever stop thinking. We need all the good new ideas we can get. And don't let the others get you down." _And don't tell anybody I feel like I have more in common with a Gronckle than with most of the people in my old village._

"Okay." The young dragon buzzed away, shouting, "Mom! Mom! Guess who just talked to me?"

Hiccup flew back to his ledge, where he was greeted by a Zippleback and two more Nadders. After they left, Toothless confronted him. "Do you know what you did wrong down there?"

"Uhh, no..." _Here it comes._

"Absolutely nothing! That's the kind of thing everyone expects from a Night Fury. You nailed it! Now you've got a good reputation to go along with their high hopes for you."

"All I did was what you said. It bothered me, seeing them picking on the misfit. It reminded me of me."

"You're a leader in your community, New-night-fury; you're not a misfit anymore."

"And that's another thing, Toothless. You kept going on and on about how nice dragons are. How come I ran into a pack of bullies on my first day here?"

"Maybe I painted too rosy a picture," Toothless admitted. "Most dragons are nicer than most people, but we aren't perfect. We've got a few bullies, and slackers, and cowards, and boasters, and the occasional drama queen. That's one reason why we need Night Furies to oversee the nest, and it's why you'll do so well here. You've had so much practice with a society full of those types, you'll have no problems handling the tiny number of them we have here. You just _proved_ that you know how to handle them. This is the life you were meant for."

New-night-fury looked around at all the dragons who were thinking kind thoughts about him, and wondered if Night-fury might somehow be right.


	11. Chapter 11

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 11

In the middle of the night, Hiccup awoke, feeling like insects were buzzing behind his eyes and inside his teeth. He shook his head, trying to make the feeling go away. He heard Toothless and Astrid stirring beside him.

"Up and at 'em," Toothless groaned. "That's the go-out signal we're feeling. The Mother is hungry. That obnoxious feeling fades once we get far enough away from the nest." All around them, they could hear dragons stirring and launching themselves into the air. As they took flight, they would spiral upwards along the walls and up the volcanic cone. There were no mid-air collisions, even among the clumsy Gronckles. When Toothless joined the pattern, Hiccup and Astrid followed him.

In the cold air above the island, the dragons milled about in a cloud. A Monstrous Nightmare bellowed for attention. "Listen up, everyone! Here's the plan. Everyone who was nesting on the east side, you're going to the place of the big spears. Everyone on the west, we're going to the place with the circles. Fly carefully, and good hunting!"

Toothless turned to his friends. "Hiccup, you go with that group, to the place of the big spears. Astrid, I think you should stay with me on this first raid. There are some things I haven't had a chance to teach you yet."

"Toothless, you're sending me _alone?!_ I've never done this before! I'm going to mess it up for sure!"

"No, you won't," Toothless answered. "Hiccup messes things up. New-night-fury is an awesome fighting dragon. I've seen what you can do. I know you'll do just fine." He tapped Hiccup's wingtip with his own. "Make sure they all know you're there. Make me proud!" Toothless turned away to follow his group, with Astrid close behind him.

Hiccup joined a flock of about fifty dragons, feeling scared and out of place. _Make sure they all know I'm here? I think I can do __that__ right._ He flew a swooping zigzag course above the flock, working his way toward the front of the formation. Soon he could hear them passing the word around – "We've got a Night Fury this time!" "New-night-fury is with us!" "There he is! We're safe now!" He was staggered and humbled to think that he, _Hiccup,_ could have such an effect on such powerful creatures. Could he be worthy of such trust?

In the center of the flock was a green Zippleback whose heads were snapping out orders to the others. She seemed to be in charge, so Hiccup flew close to her. "Excuse me, but what can you tell me about this place with the big spears?"

One head turned to face him. "It's a human place. It's not on the water, so there are no fish, but they have plenty of four-legged livestock. It got its name because someone there throws big spears at us. We've never seen him, but we see the spears. If they hit us in the wings or the tail, they make nasty wounds. If they hit the neck or the body..." She didn't finish the thought.

"I'll do what I can," Hiccup promised, and resumed his sweeping course. _I just committed to killing a powerful warrior. Can I do this? Do I __want__ to do this?_

By the time the village came into view, he was in out in front of the formation. His huge, night-adapted eyes scanned the scene. He could see the houses with their fire-pits banked low, the tradesmen's buildings, the storage sheds, and six big catapults spread equally around the town. Those catapults were his first targets.

He went through the mental checklist Toothless had taught him to use before every attack:

_Entry route?_ Straight ahead.  
_Other dragons getting in the way?_ None; they're all behind me.  
_Target?_ The nearest catapult.  
_Nearby defenses?_ I don't see any.  
_Exit route?_ That way.  
_Emergency escape route?_ Over that way.  
_Fires ready?_ He sparked the beginnings of a fireball.

Here we go!

He folded his wings and dove. He felt his speed building up, heard the telltale whistle of air rushing between wings and sub-wings. The diving attack didn't just make him a hard target; the faster and longer he dove, the more power it gave to his fireball. He felt his fires rising, controlled them, focused on his target...

He heard his own voice echoing in his mind: "This thing never steals food, never shows itself, and never misses." _Now 'this thing' is __me__._

He fired. A second later, the catapult was blasted to bits. It hadn't even been manned yet, which made him glad; he hadn't had to hurt anybody. Behind him, the other dragons poured into the village.

He swooped upward and searched for his next target. Torches were being lit all over the town; men and women rushed to the defenses or tried to fight back. He saw another catapult nearby, and close to it was an odd-looking device on a wheeled frame. Hiccup's technical mind analyzed it, figured out how it worked, guessed what it was used for... He turned on a wingtip, dove at the machine, and blew it into smoking fragments.

As he pulled out of his dive, the Zippleback leader crossed in front of him. "New-night-fury, did my eyes deceive me, or did you just miss that catapult?"

"Neither one, Two-heads-green-very-bossy," Hiccup called back. "That machine I hit – that's what throws the big spears. I'm sure they have others; I'll be hunting them down."

"Oh! In that case, thank you!" The raid was in full swing now. All over the town, Hiccup could see the burning-bright shafts of Nadder fire, the flashing bolts from the Gronckles, the spreading rivers of flame from the Nightmares, and the occasional glowing blast from a Zippleback. He could hear the shouts of the men fighting back. It was such a familiar sound. It used to be good news to his ears, but things had changed.

He wrecked another catapult, then blew out a large torch that was ruining his night vision. It was thrilling, to turn his full power loose and see what he could really do! He circled the town for a few seconds until he saw another spear machine. This one was manned and was being aimed at somebody. Hiccup hesitated for a moment, then narrowed his eyes and rolled into his dive. He heard someone scream, "Night Fury! Hit the dirt!" The machine's crew threw themselves flat on the ground just before his fireball hit. The flaming debris flew harmlessly over them, but the blast would probably leave them half-deaf for hours.

He spent the next half hour searching for and destroying anything that looked like a threat to the other dragons. Five of the six catapults would have to be rebuilt from the foundations up, and he took out a third spear machine. He wasn't sure if he'd hit any people; he hoped not. He didn't stop until he saw the dragons leaving with their prey.

He found Two-heads-green-very-bossy and asked how the raid had gone.

"In terms of food, not bad. A few of us are coming back light, but the Mother should be happy. In terms of losses, two Nadders and two Gronckles aren't coming back."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Hiccup said. He realized that some of those Nadders and Gronckles might have been the ones who were so excited to meet him earlier in the day.

"New-night-fury, don't you understand what that means? We usually lose nine or ten when we raid the place of the big spears! Any losses are sad, but four is _much_ better than we expected. And no one saw any big spears at all!" She slid sideways in the air and tapped his wingtip with hers. "Either you're an excellent fighter, or you're good luck. Either way, thank you!"

"Yes, thank you!" said a nearby Nadder, who also sideslipped and tapped wingtips with him. He quickly caught on to what was expected of him. He made his way around the entire flock, collecting wing-taps and thanks from everyone he met, especially the large dragons who would have been prime targets for the big spears. They treated him like some kind of hero.

He felt very, very good. His unique mix of dragon abilities and human experience had proved very useful tonight. He hadn't messed up, he'd saved some lives, and he'd made Toothless proud.

With a jolt, he realized something else. He'd done exactly what Toothless would have done, with little thought or hesitation. Aside from figuring out what the spear machines did, there had been nothing of Hiccup in his thoughts at all. This was only his first raid. How long would it take before Hiccup was completely gone, and only New-night-fury was left?


	12. Chapter 12

**Lightning and Death Itself** Chapter 12

Toothless and Astrid flew an easy criss-cross pattern above the dragons who were headed for the place with the circles. They were dark dragons on a dark night, but sensitive dragon eyes could see them, and their presence had quite an effect on those dragons. Astrid heard comments like, "Two Night Furies! That's never happened before!" "We've got two! I'm feeling better about this already." "That's Night-fury and one of the new ones. This ought to be good."

Toothless used the flight time to teach Astrid his attack checklist. "This was taught to me by the Night Fury who transformed me and taught me, and it's served me well for many years. It'll serve you well, too, but only if you stick to it."

"Would I be right in guessing that your mentor didn't stick to it?" she asked.

Toothless didn't answer for a moment. "He messed it up once, just _once_. He didn't choose an emergency escape route. When a squad of men ran out of a building right in front of him as he pulled out of his dive, he didn't have any other place to go. He flew right into a volley of spears." He shook his head. "I haven't thought about him in a long time. It's been just me, for so long... We're getting close. I need to focus on the job.

"They call this the place with the circles because the Vikings built circular stone corrals to hide their sheep in. It makes our raiders' jobs difficult. This village doesn't use heavy fixed catapults like Berk does; they use smaller ones on wheels. That makes _our_ job difficult – each time we visit, we never know where our main targets are.

"Astrid, I know you don't want to shoot any people, so you go in first. Hit the catapults before they're manned. I'll watch from above. Once you're out of unmanned targets, meet me above the town and we'll decide what happens next. Okay?"

"I guess so." She still wasn't crazy about the idea of attacking other Vikings.

"There's the village, straight ahead. Remember your checklist. Gain some altitude, and go get 'em!"

She flapped a few times to gain height. She could see the village now, heartbreakingly similar to Berk and yet very different. She searched until she found a catapult.

_Entry route?_ Curving gently to the left.  
_Other dragons getting in the way?_ There shouldn't be; I'm the first one in.  
_Target?_ That catapult.  
_Nearby defenses?_ Doesn't look that way.  
_Exit route?_ Straight out and up.  
_Fires ready?_ She prepared her firebolt.

Here we go! She dove. Her angle was a bit too shallow; she'd pick a steeper path next time. Her target was unmanned. It couldn't escape.

Escape. _Where was her emergency escape route? _She'd forgotten part of her checklist already!

She looked from side to side desperately. If her main exit route became too dangerous, she had to have a Plan B. Just continuing her curve to the left would be good enough. But in looking around, she'd interrupted the flow of air across her growing fireball. It wouldn't be strong enough now.

She fired. Pieces flew off the catapult, and it began to burn. But she knew that wasn't good enough. When she'd fought fires on Berk, she'd seen the devastation that came from a full-strength Night Fury firebolt. Her first real attempt wasn't even in the same league.

Toothless met her as she zoomed up. "Astrid –"

"Yeah, I know what I did wrong! I'm going to try again." Without waiting for his answer, she flipped over, found another catapult, and dove on it.

This time, she did it according to the list, and was rewarded with a satisfactory explosion. _That_ catapult would never fire again! _It's kind of like throwing an axe, only it blows up when it hits. I can see why Hiccup likes doing this_. She zoomed up to meet Toothless.

"Much better," he smiled. "We're going to take turns now. Pick out a target or two, and wait until I climb back up here, so we don't collide in the air." He folded his wings and screamed downward towards a large night-vision torch that had just gotten lit.

She watched the scene unfolding. From above, she could see how the dragons on the outskirts of town were making quick progress, while the ones strafing the central buildings were having a harder time of it. The bursts of dragon fire marked the leading edge of the battle, while the burning houses marked where the battle had already passed. She hoped everyone had gotten out of those houses.

A brilliant blast and a flower-like spray of flying embers marked the success of Toothless' attack. He was hard to follow in the dark, even for her exceptional eyes. She spotted him as he pulled out and soared up to rejoin her.

"Your turn," he said. "It looks like our folks on the north side need the most help."

"I'm on it," she nodded. She tried to find a suitable target on that side of town. There was only one catapult in that area, and it was already manned. Well, there was nothing she could do about that. Maybe they'd hear her whistling dive and yell, "Get down!"

She went through her checklist again and folded her wings. As she dove, she watched the catapult's crew wind the arm down and reload it. Then they looked up for a moment, and threw themselves to the ground. Her shot tore their weapon apart; she couldn't tell if any of the crew had gotten hurt.

With the catapult out of the battle, the dragons began to make some headway. Astrid returned to her original altitude and met Toothless again. He reached out his wing and tapped her wingtip. "You're doing well, for your first battle ever. I see only one more catapult, and it's mine. See if you can find something else worthy of a Night Fury's attention." He flapped away and set up for his next dive.

What else could she shoot at? The heavy weapons were gone. They didn't use many night-vision torches like Berk did, and the only one she'd seen was gone, too. Perhaps a tight cluster of warriors – _no!_ She rejected that idea immediately. She could have hit herself for even thinking it. Was she turning into a dragon or something?

She refused to even _consider_ answering that question.

On the south side of the town, the dragons had gotten all they were going to get, and were flapping away, with prey or without it. The Vikings in that area saw that they were no longer under attack, so they charged up the main street toward the north side, where the battle was still raging. If that many Vikings got into the battle at once, it wouldn't go well for the dragons there.

It would be so easy to flame them, but she couldn't. No, she _wouldn't_. Was there a difference? She'd sort that out later.

There was a tall wooden statue in the center of town. From above, she couldn't tell if it was in honor of some god, or in memory of some famous Viking. To her, it didn't matter; it would meet her needs perfectly. If it _was_ in honor of a god, hopefully that god knew her intent wasn't sacrilege. Or maybe the gods didn't care what dragons did to their statues. She'd try to sort _that_ out later, too, but not now.

She went through the checklist once more and dove. Her firebolt hit the ground at the very base of the statue and blew a crater out from under it. The statue slowly tipped over and crashed to the ground, blocking most of the street, just before the charging warriors got there. A few of them could go around it; the rest had to laboriously climb over it. Either way, their headlong charge was broken up. That was what she'd wanted. She let herself smile as she pulled out and returned to strike altitude.

She found Toothless there, waiting. "_Very_ nice work, Small-night-fury! None of the other dragons saw you do that, but I did, and I'm impressed. Let's see what else we can do."

For a moment, she couldn't say anything. She was so used to being borderline-hostile toward Toothless, and even in the heat and stress of battle, he wasn't being unkind to her at all. Had he _ever_ been unkind to her? Did he deserve the way she'd treated him? That was one more thing she'd have to sort out, once she got home.

"I'm wondering if we can do anything to those circular sheep pens," she finally said. "It looks like some of our dragons are going home empty. I don't want any Vikings to go hungry, but I don't want any dragons to get eaten alive, either."

"I've tried fireballing them in the past, but the stones are interlocked; I haven't been able to knock one down. If I did, the stones would probably land on the sheep, so there's no point in trying."

Astrid gazed at the nearest stone enclosure. "Hmmm. Maybe if we give it the old hammer-and-the-hatchet?"

"The what?"

"If one blow won't knock it down, maybe a one-two punch will do the job. Let's find a few Nadders who can pounce if this works." They found a small flock of Deadly Nadders who were hovering outside the town; they had found no prey to take.

"If we can get some sheep, that will probably save our lives!" their leader said. "What do you want us to do?"

"Watch that closest circle, and be ready to grab your prey as soon as we strike," Toothless told them.

He and Astrid quickly conferred, then dove in quick succession. Astrid did a repeat of her shot at the statue; her firebolt undermined part of the stone wall, which sagged but didn't fall. Then Toothless' shot struck the inside of that wall, and half of it crumbled into the crater that Astrid had made. Half a dozen sheep escaped through the hole; the others were stunned by the double fireball, and stayed where they were. The Nadders quickly collected the escaped livestock and flew away, grateful that the sheep and not the dragons would be a meal for the Mother tonight.

"I never could have done that alone," Toothless commented as they met again. "When it was just me, I only had enough time, and enough fires, to take out the dangerous targets. With two or three of us on the job at once, we can start rewriting the rules for what Night Furies do."

The battle on the north side began to break up at this time; evidently, the dragons there realized they were getting nowhere and were endangering themselves by trying. "Those dragons will be coming back empty," Toothless noted. "Let's break another circle so they can bring something home." They did so. This time, Toothless aimed higher inside the stone enclosure, so as not to stun so many sheep. This time, eight or nine got away... but not far.

The flock reassembled outside the town and counted noses. "Only three missing," said the Nightmare who had let the fight. "That's a _lot_ better than usual! It's good to see you back in action, Night-fury, and thank you too, Small-night-fury. I'm sure our low losses are thanks to the two of you."

"Believe me, it's good to be back!" Toothless replied. He began swinging around the formation, collecting wing-taps and thanks from all the dragons. Astrid hesitantly followed him; the others treated her the same way, to her great surprise.

They all flew home in good spirits. Most of them had managed to take some kind of prey, so the Mother would not be displeased. The Nadders spread the word about how the Night Furies had made special attacks just to bring some sheep within their reach. This was something new for Night Furies, and it made them even more popular.

"You've become quite the attack dragon, Astrid," Toothless grinned.

"I'm still not sure that's really me," she replied.

"Well, if you're _not_ an attack dragon, you're doing a great job of faking it," he said. "Except for that one misfire at the beginning, I can't say anything bad about your work tonight. You're clever, determined, brave, and an awesome fighting dragon."

When they got home, she hadn't yet decided if she should take that last part as a compliment or not. She was leaning toward accepting it.


	13. Chapter 13

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 13

"Astrid, can we talk? Privately?"

Astrid was startled. For the past three days, no one had called her anything but Small-night-fury, and she was beginning to respond to her new name. If Hiccup was calling her Astrid, it might be serious. They found a ledge in the nest with no other dragons nearby.

"First off, how are you adjusting to all this?" He waved his tail at their surroundings.

"Okay, I guess. Not as well as you are," she answered. "But that's nothing new. Is something wrong?"

"I'm scared." That got her attention. As Hiccup, such an admission wouldn't have surprised her at all. She might even have expected it. But as New-night-fury, he already had a reputation for carefully calculated attacks delivered with utter fearlessness. They had all flown together on their second raid, and Toothless admitted that Hiccup had nearly mastered the Night Fury's arts. Him? Scared? That was almost scary in itself.

"Scared of what, Hiccup?"

"I'm scared of losing myself. I'm a dragon now."

She chuckled, trying to hide her nervousness. "In case you hadn't noticed, you've been a dragon for weeks. You're doing pretty well at it, too."

"No, Astrid, it's not like that! Oh, let me try to explain. You feel like you were _turned into_ a dragon, but it's not the real 'you.' When you think of yourself, you see a Viking girl with blonde hair and a spiked skirt. To yourself, that's who you are. It's not just who you _were_, or who you _want_ to be; it's your self-image.

"I'm not like that anymore. I don't feel like I was turned into a dragon; I feel like I _am_ a dragon. It's as though everything I ever was, everything I ever did, right up until Toothless transformed us, was just a bad dream that I finally woke up from. When I think of myself, I see a Night Fury, not a scrawny Viking loser. If I got turned back into a human right now, I'm not sure I'd remember how to walk on two legs, or put on a shirt, or drink out of a cup, or if I'd even want to.

"But at the same time, there's a part of me that's human. It's not a big part, but it's an important part, and it means a lot to me, because... well, I spent most of my life that way.

"My old life was no prize-winner, but it made me who I am, and I'm scared that I'm losing that part of me forever. New-night-fury is taking over, and Hiccup is fading away."

"I'm not sure I understand."

He shook his head exasperatedly. "I could show you in the blink of an eye, and you'd understand perfectly, but you won't let me."

"You mean that TrueSight thing?"

"Yeah, that's how we dragons do it."

She considered. "It's still kind of scary for me. I'm not used to other people being in my head."

He looked away. "It was probably a stupid idea anyway."

She nudged him with a paw. "Hiccup, I didn't say I _wouldn't_ do it."

He looked back at her, startled. Her eyes were wide and inviting. Maybe it was a mistake to enjoy those eyes for a moment before beginning the TrueSight, but –

In an instant, she understood his turmoil. He loved his abilities and his success as a dragon, but he didn't want to lose the core of who he was, and that core was still called Hiccup. It was as if two beings, one human and one dragon, were wrestling for dominance inside him, and a third being – his own will – was watching the struggle. The problem was, he didn't know which of the two would win. Worse, he wasn't sure which one _should_ win, or even if there should _be_ a clear winner, or how he might influence the outcome. _I can see how that would be scary,_ she thought.

She saw other things as well, around the edges of his turmoil. She saw friendship with many dragons in the nest, and a big-brotherly affection for that little green Nadder who kept following him around. He took to that naturally as well, even though he'd never been anyone's big brother before. She saw his enduring love for Toothless. And she saw how he felt about _her_. He kept an unchanging mental image of her human appearance, with her smile and her blonde braid and her bangs that kept falling in her face, the way she looked the last time she'd fought a fire in Berk. He also kept a picture of her as she was now, mentally stamped with Toothless' words, "an awesomely hot babe in the dragon world."

She blinked, and the moment ended. She stared at him, pleased and offended at the same time. "Hiccup, you devil! You aren't supposed to think about me that way!"

He hung his head. "How else should I think about you? I mean, you _are_ beautiful, and I _do_ like you, a lot. It's not like I can ask your father for your hand, you know. I mean your paw. I mean... you know what I mean, I hope."

She snorted. "We're adjusting to being dragons, we're raiding villages, we're trying to fit into a society that's strange to us... How can you even _think_ about things like that at a time like this?"

"Sorry, Astrid. I guess I'm only human."

After a moment, she swatted him with her tail. "_That's_ for the way you're thinking about me." Then she rubbed her head against his. "That's for... everything else. Sometimes I really envy you."

"You? Envy _me?_" He sounded amazed.

"You make it look so easy! You adjusted to being a dragon, you learned to fly, you learned to fish, you learned to fit into this nest, you learned to fight like a Night Fury, and it was all like, 'No big deal'. You just do it, like there's nothing to it, like you've been doing it all your life."

"Like you used to make things look easy back in Berk, back when I envied you," he replied.

"But it was never easy!" she shot back. "I had to work and train like crazy. You make it look like you were born doing it. Toothless said you should have been a dragon all along; I'm starting to wonder."

Hiccup chuckled at that. "I used to envision my dad complaining that he got the wrong offspring. Maybe he _did_ get the wrong one, and he just had no idea _how_ wrong!"

"Is that even possible?" she wondered.

"I don't think so," he replied. "People and dragons don't mix, unless the dragons start slinging their Power around. But you have to admit, the thought of my dragon-hating dad with a dragon for a son... if anything could be weirder than that, I don't want to know."

"You mean, _he_ doesn't want to know," she corrected him, "because he _does_ have a dragon for a son."

Their moment was interrupted when a small green Nadder landed on the ledge. "There you are! I was looking all over the nest for you, New-night-fury! Were you hiding from me?"

Hiccup smiled. "Of course not, Nadder-green-follows-new-night-fury. What's up, little sister?"

As they chatted, Astrid slipped off the ledge and spiraled up the cone. She needed to think. Maybe a quick flight would help.

She rose easily; flying was second nature to her now. She looked down on the island. _In the past, when I needed to unwind, I used to throw my axe at defenseless trees for an hour_, she thought. _Now I go flying, and it seems just as natural._

_Maybe I'm starting to become a dragon, too._


	14. Chapter 14

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 14

It was their seventh raid since they joined the nest. Hiccup and Astrid joined the flock that was bound for the place with the rocks, and Toothless flew with the dragons who were visiting the place by the lake. As the two groups parted, Toothless had said, "Fly very carefully, and good luck. It's time." They didn't know what he meant by that, and he had flown away before they could ask.

The dragons flew with their usual excited hubbub. They used to fly in silence, fearing the worst when they reached their destination. But now that every flight had at least one Night Fury, they were more relaxed. Casualties were down on every raid. Stealing food from humans would never be a game to them, but at least it wasn't a suicide mission now.

As they approached the place with the rocks, the two Night Furies looked ahead and saw a depressingly familiar island. It was Berk.

"Hiccup, what are we going to do? We can't kill our own people!"

"We'll shoot the catapults right away, before anybody gets onto them. Then we'll shoot out the big torches; that shouldn't hurt anybody. Then... I'll think of something."

"I'm with you," she said. They tapped wings and climbed to get ready for their first diving attacks.

The citizens of Berk had no idea they were under attack until two of their catapults were blown off their foundations in quick succession. The other two were blasted just as their crews were getting to them. The crews turned back and ran for the smithy for some hand weapons.

Some of them threw burning brands into the night-vision torches and raised them to battle height. The flames from the oil-soaked wood would let them see their enemies in the dark. But as soon as each torch was lit and raised, something fast and black would dive and shoot it out. Some of the burning wood flew and landed on the roofs of nearby buildings, adding to the flaming destruction caused by the dragons themselves.

Hiccup pulled out of his most recent firing run. All the usual Night Fury targets had been dealt with; Berk relied more on warriors than on heavy weapons. What else could he do to help his friends? It looked like the humans were concentrating. They needed to be scattered or sidetracked. He dove and burned two warehouses by the waterfront as a diversion. He knew those warehouses were old and seldom used; if they went up in flames, no Vikings would starve as a result. As he watched, a handful of warriors left the battle to fight the fires and keep them from spreading. Excellent.

Hiccup circled the village, identifying familiar buildings and watching the progress of the raid. The Gronckles were making short work of the fish-drying racks, while a flock of Nadders was rounding up some sheep. He recognized a few friends, including Nadder-all-blue-talks-all-the-time and his little sister, Nadder-green-follows-new-night-fury.

Then he saw two Vikings running toward them with nets. The Nadders were vigilant; they turned and took off, abandoning their prey until later. But one of the men threw his net and caught one of the dragons. It was his little sister! She struggled against the net as it fouled her wings. Then another Viking ran up behind her with a spear...

"NO-O-O-O!" Hiccup screamed, part in horror and part to drown out the Nadder's final cry. Something inside him snapped. He had never wanted to shoot a human before. He heard Toothless' words echoing in his mind –

"_When you see one of your dragon friends taken down by a net or a spear, you'll know what to do."_

He checked his approach and escape routes, made sure he wouldn't hit another dragon as he dove, and coldly chose his target. The man was waving the spear in triumph, gloating at what he had done. Hiccup pushed over into a dive, feeling his rage, feeling his power building up, focusing on his target –

IT WAS HIS OWN FATHER!

It was too late to hold his fire. He desperately turned his head and launched the firebolt into an empty patch of pasture, blasting a huge crater. He pulled up and headed out to sea, his mind a black vortex of horror. The raid was still ongoing. The dragons might still need his help. A detached part of his mind hoped Astrid could handle it; the rest of him didn't care.

When the other dragons left Berk, they found their Night Fury circling mindlessly. Astrid pulled alongside. "New-night – I mean, Hiccup, what's wrong?"

"Take me home," he sobbed. "Just take me home." She laid a wing alongside his, and guided him back to the nest and their ledge. When they landed, he couldn't stop shaking, and when she let him rest his head against hers, he burst into uncontrollable tears.

"Hiccup, please tell me what's wrong!" she pleaded.

"My little sister!" he finally blurted out. "She's _dead!_ I watched my father kill her! He _laughed_ about it! And I almost killed _him!_ Oh, gods, I almost _killed_ him!" He collapsed against her again, unable to stop crying. Astrid was dumbstruck. She awkwardly wrapped a wing around him; she knew there was nothing she could say. _Just when his life had finally changed from horrible to wonderful..._

The other dragons gave them space; word spread quickly that something very bad had happened to New-night-fury. They assumed he was mourning for Nadder-green-follows-new-night-fury, and they were partly right.

Toothless arrived, in good spirits because his raid had gone well. Those spirits vanished when he saw Hiccup sobbing. "What happened?" he asked Astrid.

"Let me show you," she said, and shared TrueSight with him for the first time.

"Oh, no." Toothless blinked hard. "Oh, _no_." He sat down next to Hiccup and covered him with a wing from the other side.

"I'm so sorry," Toothless whispered; Astrid wasn't sure if he was talking to her or to Hiccup. "This is partly my fault. I thought you were ready for a strike on your old home town. I never foresaw _this_..."

It took nearly an hour for Hiccup to regain his composure. He struggled to his feet in silence between his two worried friends. Finally, he spoke, through a throat constricted with grief.

"This war has got to be _stopped_."


	15. Chapter 15

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 15

"What are you suggesting, Hiccup? A peace treaty between the dragons and the Vikings? Do we tell them that, if they give us half their food, we won't steal the other half? Surely you don't think your father would approve a deal like that?"

"There has to be _something_ we can do, Toothless! What if we quit raiding, and just brought fish for the Mother?"

"There are two problems with that, Hiccup. One, she likes a mixed diet, and dragons get eaten if she doesn't get what she wants. Two, if the fish start schooling elsewhere and we can't find them, we're right back where we started."

Astrid leaned into the discussion. "What if we all just left the nest and moved someplace else?"

"She'd call us back in," Toothless answered. "No one has found a limit on how far away she can control us."

"What, exactly, does she contribute to the nest?" Hiccup asked.

Toothless dropped his voice to a near-whisper. "Nothing. She rules because she can summon and send, and because she can eat anyone she wants. I know what you're thinking, Hiccup, and it can't be done. She's too big, and her skin is too thick, for any combination of dragons to take down."

"Does she ever leave the nest?" Astrid wondered.

"Once or twice a year, she flies up the cone, takes a couple of laps around the island, breathes a little fire, and comes back again." Toothless answered. "No one follows her when she's exercising – we don't want to feel the burn. There's no predicting when she'll do it."

"A few laps around the island sounds like a real good idea right now," Hiccup decided. "I've got more stress than I know what do to with." He was up and out of the nest like an arrow shot from a bow. Astrid moved to follow him; Toothless stepped in front of her.

"I'd let him go," he advised her. "He's had a terrible shock to his mind and his heart. Let him work it out, his way."

"All his life, whenever something went wrong, he had to handle it alone," she replied heatedly. "I was one of the people who _stood_ there and _let_ him go through that! But I'm a dragon now, right? You told him dragons would treat him better than people did. So I'm going to prove it to him." She leaped straight up and left the nest through the crater.

Finding him wasn't hard. He was circling the island just above the fog line, flapping hard for maximum speed, as though he could leave his heartsickness behind if he could only fly fast enough. She spiraled down the mountain, gaining speed in a shallow dive so she could overtake him. He looked at her for a few seconds, then flipped his tail and shot skyward.

There was nothing in his expression that said he wanted to get away from her, so she followed him. It took some doing, but she finally caught up with him just as he entered the clouds. He was hard to see through the murk, but she was just close enough not to lose him.

Suddenly he rolled over, folded his wings, and plunged straight down. Again she followed him. They pulled out just above the waves and glided.

Finally he said, "You're putting a lot of effort into keeping up with me."

"I figured you've gone through enough pain all by yourself."

Wordlessly, he sideslipped until their wingtips barely touched. They glided that way for several minutes. There was something powerful about touching him; she felt like she might be holding him up, emotionally if not physically.

Very gradually, he turned toward the island. She turned with him, keeping that inch of wingtip contact, a feat few other dragons could have matched. Eventually they came to the cone of the volcano; they had to break their wing contact so they could flap to gain altitude. Rather than dive in, Hiccup backwinged and landed on the rim. She joined him there. They sat in silence for a while.

"Astrid, do you like me?"

She wasn't expecting that question. "Well, you're brave, you're clever, you're flexible, you're loyal to your friends..."

"Thanks. I'm also long, dark, and handsome. But do you _like_ me?"

"Where are we going with this?" she asked.

"When we were in Berk, you were the girl I dreamed about. I'd steal moments away from the forge to watch you walk by. The main reason I invented all those dragon-killing devices that failed was so you'd notice me. When we went for that flight on Toothless, I felt like you were warming up to me, and life was going to be amazing. And then we got changed, and everything else changed, and we've hardly had time to do anything together except disagree about how dragonish we should be."

"You were never this up-front with your feelings before."

Hiccup looked at a distant cloud. "If you looked in my eyes for half a second, you'd know all this anyway. I might as well be up-front." He looked back at her. "Toothless was so busy teaching me about flying and fighting and being a role model, he never told me how boy dragons and girl dragons get together. All I know is, you're the only one who can understand the things I'm going through. And even though you don't look like Astrid, or sound like Astrid, you still _feel_ like Astrid. I still get that funny feeling in my stomach when you're close to me. When we were flying wingtip-to-wingtip just now, you made me warm, even though you were two wing-lengths away. You make things better, just by being here. So I need to know: do you like me?"

She half-smiled. "Why don't you look in my eyes and find out?"

He looked. What he saw was utterly different from the first time they'd shared TrueSight. The disgust with her new form was now a mix of acceptance and curiosity. Her feelings for Toothless had changed from mistrust to a comfortable feeling, like that of an adult student with a teacher she enjoys learning from. There was still homesickness, but it occupied a much smaller part of the picture. And for Hiccup, there was some envy, and quite a bit of concern over that last raid, wrapped up in a warm blanket of friendship, with a tiny but hot spark that might mean something more.

She saw much in him, but chose to focus on the raid. She saw pride and pleasure that the two of them had gone into battle together and made a good team. The green Nadder's death was blocked out, as though someone had taken a knife and sliced away the middle of a tapestry. She saw the impossible ambivalence between Stoick, Hiccup's father, and Stoick, the killer of Hiccup's little sister. _That could push anyone over the edge. I'm amazed he's taking it as well as he is._

Hiccup blinked. "Wow. Thanks for that. I mean, I know the dragon in you is talking to the dragon in me, but I had to know if the human in you wanted anything to do with the human in me."

She sat closer to him. "I'd have to, even if I didn't want to. Who else could I ever turn to?"

"Well, there's always Toothless," Hiccup suggested.

"Me and _him?_ Ewww!" She slapped him with her tail. "_That's_ for even _thinking_ such a thing."

She slid right up against him and laid her head on his shoulder. "Hiccup, you are a wonderful person who looks like a wonderful dragon. I like all of you." He closed his eyes and wrapped a wing around her. They sat that way, enjoying each other's closeness, for almost half an hour.

At last he withdrew his wing. "We ought to be getting back inside. Thanks for that, Astrid. I needed it."

_So did I,_ she thought.


	16. Chapter 16

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 16

Berk was slowly picking up the pieces from the last dragon raid. It had been costly in terms of food lost, although casualties were light. Their best weapons against the dragons – the catapults and the night-vision torches – had been shot out by those accursed Night Furies very early in the battle, so the Vikings were limited to hand weapons, fighting by the light of burning buildings. They'd made a few of the devils pay the price, but far too many escaped, taking precious fish and sheep with them.

The four teens waited by a water barrel to see if their fire-patrol services were still needed. They were all tired after a long night, but Fishlegs was thoughtful. "Isn't it weird to think those Night Furies might have been Hiccup and Astrid?"

"You're crazy," Ruffnut objected. "They wouldn't attack their own town and their own people! Would they?"

"I heard they only shot empty catapults, the big torches, and those old, empty warehouses," Fishlegs countered. "It's like they were trying not to hurt anybody."

"One of them took a shot at the chief," Tuffnut said. "It missed, and made a big hole in the sheep pasture."

"Night Furies never miss!" Fishlegs said.

"Then that one must have been Hiccup," Snotlout threw in. "Even as a Night Fury, he messes up."

Up in the Mead Hall, Stoick and Spitelout were taking damage reports from the people. The results weren't pretty. Their defenses had been leveled. Berk was completely vulnerable to another dragon raid, or to a raid from some other Viking tribe.

"Loki is having his way with us!" Stoick raged. "The devils get stronger and we get weaker! We won't make it through the winter at this rate."

"Maybe we need to try something different," Spitelout suggested.

"Like what? Leave? Surrender? Make a deal with the dragons?" Stoick threw up his hands. " 'If we give you half our food, will you stop stealing the other half?' Why don't we just invite them to walk in our streets and roost on our houses while we're at it?" Several bystanders laughed at that mental picture. "We can't live in the same world with them! We have _got_ to get rid of them, once and for all! Find the nest and take it! It's the only way!"

Spitelout wasn't one to cross swords with his chief, but he'd seen too many good ships, full of good men, set sail on Stoick's mad quest and never come back. "Stoick, I know you think you can break rocks by beating your head against them, but we have to face the facts! We are never going to find that nest! Only the dragons themselves can find it!"

Stoick hammered the table with his huge fist. "Don't _ever_ tell me what Vikings can't do! If the dragons can find it, then... we..." His eyes focused on something far, far away. "Dragons can find the nest."

"That's right, Stoick, dragons can find the nest. And we aren't dragons."

"But we _have_ some dragons." Stoick's face went as hard as the iron in his hammer, and Spitelout knew that, whatever decision he'd just reached, there'd be no talking him out of it.

The next day, Berk emptied itself. Every able-bodied warrior, male and female, set sail in every ship they had. They brought the pieces of the catapults they were rebuilding; they brought every weapon they thought they might need; and, on the lead ship, they brought a dragon. The Deadly Nadder from the dragon training ring was their unwilling passenger. Its neck was restrained by a heavy wooden collar, its mouth was held shut with a wide leather strap, and its tail was strapped to the deck in three places so it couldn't throw its spines at anyone.

On one of the ships, four not-so-warrior-like figures climbed out from under the tarpaulin that had covered them, and adjusted their helmets. "Thanks for letting us come along, Gobber," Ruffnut said.

"This could be a great moment in our history, and ye deserve to see it," the smith answered. "Snotlout's father said it was okay. But stay out of Stoick's way; he doesn't exactly know ye're here."

"He doesn't?" Fishlegs gasped.

The smith grinned with a twinkle in his eye. "Well, ye know, he had a lot on his mind, what with plannin' this attack an' all. Maybe one or two people forgot to mention ye were comin' along. So stay on the ship an' stay out o' trouble, an' all will be well."

On the lead ship, Spitelout cast a sidelong glance at the Nadder. "Stoick, once we get close to the nest, what's going to stop the dragons from attacking us, like they usually do?"

"They won't attack a ship with a dragon on it," Stoick said confidently.

"I hope you're right," the second-in-command replied.

When they finally sighted Helheim's Gate, Stoick led the ships into the fog without hesitation. As he'd guessed, the Nadder picked up the dragons' calls and turned its head toward them. Stoick siezed the rudder and, guided by the Nadder, steered his ship through the labyrinth of rocks and islets. The rest of the ships followed him in. It was a nerve-wracking passage, and more than one Viking wondered how they would ever find their way out again. But they all made it in one piece, and were soon grounded on a barren island whose only feature was a great volcano.

"We're here," Stoick grinned.

They set up their catapults, found plenty of rocks for ammunition, and were soon hammering away at the rock wall of the nest. They broke through faster than they expected. Stoick called for one more shot, a flaming shot to illuminate what they'd found.

Inside the nest, the dragons heard and felt the thumps of the rocks hitting the outside wall. None of them knew what it meant. The three Night Furies were making guesses when Toothless exclaimed, "Did you see that? Down in the smoke, I just saw a bright light; it looked like a shooting star." They heard the Mother stir and grumble with displeasure, and suddenly, their teeth itched. It was the send-out signal.

"Off we go, into the wild blue yonder," Hiccup called. "I don't know why, but Mother knows best. Maybe once we're outside, we can see what's going on." They joined the mad scramble of dragons getting out of the nest as fast as they could. It was an unscheduled send-out with no raid plan, so the other dragons headed for the mainland, to hunt or fish for whatever they could find. The Night Furies knew of no targets that needed shooting, so they stayed.

They saw the Viking ships, and the army drawn up on land. They watched as the Mother burst out of the new hole in her nest, destroyed the catapults that were still shooting at her, and set fire to all the ships with one long blast of hurricane-fire.

On one of the ships, four young people shrank from the flames. "Uhh, guys?" Fishlegs quavered. "When Gobber told us to stay on the ship, I don't think _this_ was part of the plan."

"We're out of here; come on!" Snotlout exclaimed. "It's shallower on this side. We can walk to shore." They jumped over the side and waded to safety, where they watched the disaster unfolding.

From above, Hiccup watched the men scatter, running for their lives. He saw two men detach themselves from the group and charge at the Mother. One walked with a wooden leg, and he didn't have to guess who the other one might be. Attack route? Straight down. Other dragons in the way? None, except his target. _The last time I dove on you, I almost killed you, Dad. This time, I'll save your life._

Stoick had succeeded. The monster had noticed him. It bent down and stared at him, seemingly amazed that such tiny creatures would dare to attack it. Then it reared up, opened its mouth, and...

From high above came a rising whistle that every Viking knew and dreaded. "Night Fury?" asked Stoick; he thought all the other dragons had left.

"Get down!" shouted Gobber. Stoick stayed on his feet, and he saw the tiny black dot growing in size, saw the blue fireball, saw the giant dragon wince in pain as its head was crowned in flames.

Hiccup pulled out of his dive and swept past the Mother. He had never seen anything but her head; he hadn't realized how _big_ she was! But the die was cast. He whipped into a tight turn and flew back toward her, determined to keep her eyes on him and off the Vikings.

"He's crazy!" Toothless shouted from the crater rim. "He can't take on the Mother!"

"Not alone, he can't! Come on!" Astrid called. They both dove into a battle they had no way of winning.


	17. Chapter 17

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 17

At first, they had no plan, just a desperate desire to keep the Mother from getting to the Vikings. Toothless didn't share that desire like they did, but he knew how his friends felt, and he fought beside them whole-heartedly, even though it would probably be the death of him. They circled the Mother's head, darting back and forth, keeping her distracted.

The Vikings stopped and stared. No one had ever seen a Night Fury before; now there were _three_ of them, and while none could guess at their motives, their actions were helping the tribe stay alive a little longer. Down by the shore, Tuffnut exclaimed, "Cool! Dragon fight!"

As Astrid ducked under the Mother's chin, she saw motion out of the corner of her eye. "Hiccup, there's a dragon on that ship over there!"

"I see it!" he answered. "Keep the Mother busy; I'll be right back." He broke away and landed lightly on the deck of the burning longship.

The Nadder couldn't speak; her mouth was strapped shut. Hiccup reached up with a claw, hooked it into the strap, and pulled it off. The blue dragon shook her head, delighting in the sudden freedom.

"Night-fury! I hoped you'd come for me! But you look different."

"I'm New-night-fury," Hiccup said. "I'll explain later. We need to get you out of here!" That wooden collar had to go next, and he could think of only one way to do it. "Hold still and hang on; this might sting a little." Again, his technical mind came in handy; he could see that the weakest point of the collar was the wood where the hinge was screwed in. He carefully aimed a small firebolt. It burst, which darkened the Nadder's scales in that area, but also weakened the wood. He took one of the chains in his mouth and pulled hard, and the collar broke free.

Now nothing held the Nadder except the leather straps on her tail. He hooked those out with his claws, one by one. "Go! Get out of here, find a place that's safe!" The Nadder nodded and flapped away. Hiccup turned and rejoined the battle against the Mother.

He was unaware that his actions had been watched closely by four teens. They didn't dare get involved. They just stared as a Night Fury methodically tore apart a very substantial dragon restraint system. "That's one smart dragon," Snotlout said.

"You know who that is, don't you?" Fishlegs asked.

Ruffnut stared at him. "But if that's Hiccup, that means one of those two over there is Astrid!" Fishlegs nodded. Ruff stared at the size of the dragon her friend was fighting, and did something she almost never did: she bowed her head and murmured, "Thor, please help her!"

Toothless whipped close to Hiccup. "We can't hold her off forever! And we can't hurt her!"

Hiccup looked at the huge bulk of the dragon they were circling. "We have to get her off the ground. We need to make her mad enough to chase us into the air!"

"Only a full-strength fireball could do that!" Toothless said.

"Then gain some altitude and take the shot. Astrid and I will keep her busy!" Toothless dipped, then shot upwards in a zoom climb.

For the next half a minute, Hiccup and Astrid performed a dizzying full-speed dance around the Mother's head. It was frightening, it was exhilarating, and it was amazing because he felt like he knew exactly what Astrid was about to do, just before she did it. She seemed to know his thoughts and plans as well. They would race straight toward each other, and at the last second, he would veer up and she would curve down, avoiding a collision by mere inches. One of them was constantly in the Mother's field of vision, irritating her and keeping her from focusing on the Vikings who were rooted to the ground, staring at the incredible battle playing out before them.

With their sensitive ears, Hiccup and Astrid heard Toothless' whistling dive before the humans did. They pulled away quickly before his fireball hit. When it did, it struck with such power, the Mother was bowled over, hitting the ground with a shock that the Vikings could feel through their feet. They didn't understand how any living thing could survive such a blow. But the Mother wasn't even wounded! She arose angrily, spread her enormous wings, and ponderously launched herself into the air. She forgot all about the Vikings. Her only object was the tiny black Night Furies that were tormenting her.

"I think that did it!" Hiccup called to Toothless. The three of them took off at top speed, with the Mother in pursuit. She was ungainly in flight, but her sheer size gave her a speed that the Night Furies were hard-pressed to match.

Toothless led them through a rock arch. He hoped the Mother would get stuck when she followed them, but she simply flexed her shoulders and shattered the thick rock on impact. "Now what do we do?" he asked out loud.

"See those clouds up there?" Hiccup answered. "It's time to disappear!" They angled up, flapping hard to stay in front of the angry Mother. To the observers on the ground, they looked like tiny sparrows compared to the giant that was chasing them. It loosed a thick blast of flame; they scattered three ways and it missed them all. Then they entered the cloud layer.

They could hear the Mother roaring in frustration, trying to find them in the murk. They flew in a tight circle so they could talk. "What's the plan, Hiccup?" Astrid asked.

"Shoot holes in her wings. Lots of holes. Once she's lost lift, we lead her into a power dive, straight into the ground."

"Who gets to be the bait?" Toothless asked.

"We all have to do it, or she might stay up here trying to find us," Hiccup said. "She has to dive; we can't let her glide down. That means we need to do it _now,_ while she's still mad." They nodded and scattered.

Toothless went in first, then Hiccup from another angle, then Astrid from yet another direction. Again it seemed to Hiccup that he and Astrid were sharing a mind, their attacks were so perfectly coordinated. Toothless wasn't on the same page as they were, but he was more experienced and he skilfully locked into their strike pattern. The Mother never knew where the next attack was coming from. All she knew was that, after each fireball struck, it took more effort to stay in the air. In frustration, she spat out flame in every direction, hoping to do some damage to her assailants. Hiccup got a burn on his tail, but it didn't handicap him badly.

"Now's our chance!" Toothless shouted. "She can't flame again for at least half a minute. Let's bring her down!" They charged. Hiccup whipped past her face, felt her breath, felt a blast of air as she tried to bite him in half. He pushed over into his dive and saw the others doing the same.

He glanced back and saw the Mother leaning into her own dive, completely fixated on him and his friends. He felt no fear, and no compassion for what was about to happen to her. For the first time in his life, he gave himself over to hatred. _This is for my little sister, and every dragon who ever died for the sake of your lazy, selfish appetite, you murderer,_ he thought. _And every human, too. It's too bad we can kill you only once._

They scattered slightly as they plunged downward. Toothless wound up in the middle, and the Mother fixed her six eyes on him. Fighting the Mother was not on his list of things to do when he woke up that morning. He was actually getting scared. Night Furies aren't supposed to get scared.

"Stay with me, buddy!" Hiccup's voice gave him strength. "We're good! Just a little bit longer!" They held the dive as the massive monster behind them grew slowly closer.

Hiccup glanced back and saw the Mother's maw filling with sickly yellow gas. "Toothless, get it ready... NOW!" The Night Fury spun and shot one last fireball straight into the giant's mouth, setting her internal gases on fire.

"Pull out! Pull out _now_!" Astrid screamed. The ground was coming up fast. They broke away as the Mother tried to slow her plunge. But her wings were punctured in too many places, and the holes grew as she overstressed her wings. She screamed, hit the ground head-first, and died as her gases erupted into a titanic fireball.

That fireball quickly encompassed the three Night Furies. Dragons are fireproof on the outside, and their mouths and throats can take the heat. But their lungs are as sensitive as any other creature's. Hiccup, Astrid, and Toothless had been flying hard and fast; they had to breathe; but if they did, they would inhale pure dragon fire.

They desperately tried to get clear of the flames. Astrid could hold her breath no longer, and she dropped to the ground, moaning in agony from what she'd inhaled. Toothless had been working the hardest, and he went down hard. Hiccup almost made it out of the flaming cloud, but he had to breathe just before he got clear. He fell back into the fires as those fires were dissipating, and took a long plunge to the stony ground below.


	18. Chapter 18

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 18

The clouds of dust and ashes slowly settled on the battlefield. The Vikings had faced annihilation a few minutes ago. Then they watched as three Night Furies baited their gargantuan enemy, led it up into the clouds, fired on it repeatedly, and brought it down to its death. The sheer scale of the battle, and the size of their adversary, left them feeling breathless.

At last they could see more than a few feet. In the distance, they could see the charred remains of the giant dragon. Between it and them lay three irregular black lumps, chests heaving as their injured lungs tried to pull in enough air. The one on the left had landed very hard; its left hind leg was badly injured. The smaller one in the middle was lying on its side, gasping for breath, while the one on the right was clearly unconscious.

Stoick took in the scene at a glance. His eyes narrowed. Three Night Furies, at his mercy! This would be sweet payback for all the destruction they had dumped on his village over the years. He hefted his hammer and advanced on the left-hand one, which seemed to be the most alert. He could take the other two at his leisure.

"Sir! _Wait!_ Don't do it!" came a voice. Someone was running up behind him. He turned.

"Fishlegs Ingerman? I don't remember you being part of this raid."

"Well, uhhh, I just kind of came along. But don't hurt those dragons!"

"The _dragons?_" Stoick's bafflement turned to anger. "_That's_ what you're worried about? What about all the people they've killed?"

"I have a really strong feeling _these_ dragons haven't killed anybody, sir."

"They're Night Furies! Killing is what they do! It's all they're good for!"

Fishlegs worked his way between Stoick and the closest injured dragon. "Sir, there's something I have to tell you about these dragons." He told him about the encounter at The Cliffs.

"And you expect me to _believe_ this wild story of yours?" Stoick demanded.

"Yes, because it's true." Ruffnut broke away from the crowd and stood in front of the middle dragon. "All four of us were there. We all saw it and heard it."

"All _four_ of you? How many stowaways did we bring on this raid?" Reluctantly, Tuffnut and Snotlout left the mass of Vikings and stood next to their friends.

Stoick shook his head. "You've listened to too many fairy tales! They're dragons and nothing more! Even if it _was_ true, how could you know these are the same Night Furies you saw? Get out of my way!"

"We can prove it!" Ruff exclaimed. She turned and walked over to the middle Night Fury. Everyone gasped – getting that close to a dragon, even an injured one, is not a smart move when you're unarmed. And this was a _Night Fury!_

Ruffnut knelt next to the black dragon. "Astrid? I think that's you. Can you hear me? It's me, Ruff! I know you're kind of banged up, but can you do that fist-bump one more time, so they'll know it's you? It's really important." She held out her fist.

Slowly, agonizingly, the black dragon raised a paw and gently batted Ruffnut's hand. There were more gasps from among the watching Vikings. Ruff turned so no one could see her face; she was determined not to cry this time.

"A simple trick!" Stoick scoffed. "It just copied what you did! That's all!" He heard a scratching noise. The injured dragon had struggled to its feet and was making marks on the stone with its claw.

HI, DAD

It seemed as if Stoick had turned to stone. He stared, motionless, for what seemed like forever. Then he shook his head. "Another trick! Those dragons are clever! They saw something we wrote, and then learned to copy it! Don't let them fool you!"

IT'S ME, HICCUP  
THAT'S ASTRID

Fishlegs braced himself. "Sir, I don't think any dragon ever saw _that_ written down _anywhere_."

Stoick got down on one knee to look the injured Night Fury in the eye. "I'm supposed to believe that you're my son? That you got turned into... _this_ by some kind of dragon magic, but it's really you in there?" The dragon bobbed its head up and down once and made a burbling noise.

The chief put his hands to his temples and shook his head. "No. This can't be. This is some kind of nightmare! My son... a dragon? Not _my_ son!" The Night Fury made a sad crooning sound.

"All right, we'll settle this!" Stoick snapped, standing up again. "If you're really Hiccup, then tell me something that only Hiccup could know!"

The dragon stood motionless for a moment. Then it backed up, visibly wincing when it put its weight on its injured leg, and began scratching.

ON THE DAY MOM DIED  
YOU PROMISED "I WILL BE  
THERE FOR YOU ALWAYS"

It was all Stoick could do to avoid breaking down on the spot. No one else could possibly have known about that promise, in those exact words. And no one else could possibly have known how badly he had broken that promise. His hammer fell from his hand, forgotten. He addressed the dragon in a voice that was very close to breaking.

"I've spent my entire life fighting dragons, killing dragons, _hating_ dragons. If I could wipe every dragon off the face of the world, I'd do it with a smile. And now, suddenly, I have to accept _you,_ as part of my family? Live in my house? Share my food? It's a hard thing you're asking of me... Hiccup."

The dragon scratched. Only one answer could possibly push the chief over the line and make him truly believe.

THANK YOU FOR SUMMING THAT UP

With a groan, Stoick the Vast sank to his knees, hiding his face in his hands, oblivious to all the warriors who were watching. "My son... my son..." he sobbed. "I thought I'd lost you..."

The dragon slowly limped over to him. It reached out its head and gently rubbed its nose against his shoulder with a soft moan. Behind him, he heard Toothless stirring. Ruffnut was resting a hand on Astrid's head and saying something, but no one else could hear her.

The chief looked in the dragon's eyes. It didn't look like a killer. He took a deep breath.

"I really don't know if I can do this. There's been so much hurt, so many deaths, so much destruction... I'm not sure I can just put it all aside."

The dragon scratched out a long message. Everyone was straining to read it.

IN WAR, PEOPLE GET HURT.  
YOU KILLED SOME OF MY FRIENDS TOO.  
NOW WE HAVE PEACE  
WE HAVE TO LEARN TO FORGIVE

Stoick slowly turned to Gobber, who was reading over his shoulder. "Gobber," he asked softly, "is a dragon lecturing me on right and wrong?"

"No, yer _son_ is lecturin' ye on right an' wrong. I think ye better listen to 'im."

Slowly, hesitantly, Stoick reached out and rested a hammy hand on the dragon's nose. The Night Fury started to flinch away, but held himself in place and forced himself to return his father's gaze. He blinked twice.

"Hiccup... this isn't going to be an easy thing for me. It may take a while. It's going to take some major adjustments."

FOR ALL OF US

Hiccup turned, startled. It was Astrid who had written those runes. Toothless looked over her shoulder, curious. She told him what she'd written, and what the other runes said. He nodded.

"I'll give 'em this," Gobber interjected. "That was some fine fightin' they did in the sky. Stoick, I think your son is a warrior after all."

"Speaking of that," Stoick said suddenly. "If you're Hiccup, and that's the Hofferson girl, then who's _that?_"

TOOTHLESS, MY BEST FRIEND  
HE TAUGHT ME HOW TO BE A DRAGON

Stoick looked back and forth between them. They were all identical except for some variations in their markings, and the fact that the Astrid-dragon was slightly smaller. "Toothless, uhhh... thank you, for training my son." The dragon answered with one of those half-moan, half-growl noises that meant nothing to people.

HE SAYS YOU'RE WELCOME

_I am the chief of Berk,_ Stoick thought, _head dragon slayer of my tribe, and I'm exchanging polite pleasantries with a Night Fury_. _Maybe I should serve tea and biscuits for them next?_ The ridiculousness of the scene nearly overwhelmed him. He needed something else to put his mind on.

The chief looked back at Hiccup's long message and read it again. One word suddenly leaped out at him. "Peace? What kind of peace are you talking about?"

DRAGONS RAIDED TO FEED THE MOTHER  
– THAT BIG DEAD THING.  
NO MORE MOTHER, NO MORE RAIDS.  
PEACE

Stoick read it twice to make sure he understood it. "No more dragon raids? If that's true, it's my life's _dream_ come true, but..." He shook his head in amazement. "How many of these huge changes do you think a person can handle in one day?"

Astrid's lungs still ached, but she managed a half-smile at Hiccup as she scratched on the rock.

WE'VE HANDLED BIGGER CHANGES

Meanwhile, Gobber had wandered behind Hiccup and was looking at his injured leg. He shook his head. "Hiccup-beastie, that doesn't look good at all. If you were a human, I'd say we had to take some o' that off."

There was no mistaking the horror on Hiccup's face, dragon or otherwise.


	19. Chapter 19

**Lightning And Death Itself** Chapter 19

A/N This chapter may be a little hard to follow. Just remember that Hiccup and Astrid can understand human speech, as can Toothless for the most part, but no human can understand dragon speech. Dragons can talk to humans only with simple gestures (like nodding the head) and by scratching runes on the ground, which I've shown as all-uppercase. If I could make human speech and dragon speech look different by using different fonts, I would, but doesn't give me that option. It would have made things a lot easier if Hiccup had invented "Dragon Naturally Speaking" software. (Sorry.)

**o**

There were days when it was harder to be the chief of Berk than others, Stoick decided. Today was certainly one of those days. Nothing serious had happened, except he had finally found and broken the dragons' nest, seen his tribe on the verge of annihilation by the mother of all dragons, seen them _rescued_ by three other (shudder!) _dragons_, and found himself and all his warriors stranded on a rocky, lifeless island with no way home except a burnt, shattered fleet. Oh, and one more thing – it turned out that one of those dragons that saved his tribe was actually his only son, who had run away weeks ago and had now come back, transformed into every Viking's blood-oath enemy. No, today was _not_ the greatest day of his life. Did Hiccup really have to make things worse by being so _difficult_?

"Why _can't_ you come home yet?" he demanded. The dragon that was his son scratched some more runes on the rocks with his claw.

NO ONE AT HOME WANTS ME.  
I HAVE TO HELP THE OTHER DRAGONS.  
THEY SEE ME AS A LEADER

"The dragons... see _you_... as their leader?" If there was a word that Stoick never associated with his son, even more than "warrior," it was "leader." He loved his son and tried to see his best side, but he really doubted if Hiccup could lead a pack of hungry wolves to meat.

NIGHT FURIES LEAD AND PROTECT  
THE NEST. THEY LOVE ME

Stoick just stared at that message in silence. That seemed as impossible as... as all the other impossible things he'd seen and heard and learned today.

"Sir, if I may?" Fishlegs had stayed close to the dragons as everyone else searched for scattered tools and timbers to repair their ships. He and Ruffnut were the only ones who had really believed that two of Berk's missing teens had actually been turned into dragons. Now he had appointed himself a sort of go-between, trying to help his chief understand these creatures that were his worst enemy until they saved his tribe. "Night Furies are Strike Class dragons, which means they're very intelligent. It makes sense that the other dragons would look up to them."

"Fishlegs, I can understand the dragons looking up to a Night Fury. It's them looking up to _Hiccup_ that I'm having trouble with."

Hiccup turned to Astrid. "If I try to explain to him how everything is different now that I'm a dragon, I'll wear my claws off. I hardly have words for it myself; trying to put it into runes is killing me."

"Then why are you trying so hard to say it all at once?"

Hiccup sighed. "Because for the first time in my life, he's really _listening_ to me."

Astrid glanced upward. Two Nadders and a Nightmare were gliding toward the nest at high altitude. "Here come some more of our dragons. They'll be coming back in twos and threes for a week."

"Astrid, if you were in my shoes, how would you explain to Dad that I can't go home yet, because I feel like I owe it to the other dragons to help them sort their lives out, now that they don't have to feed the Mother any more?"

Stoick turned back to Fishlegs. "Do you have any idea what they're saying to each other?"

"No, sir, I don't speak their language."

"How long would it take to learn?" Before Fishlegs could stammer out an answer to that question, Stoick saw a situation in the ship-rebuilding effort that needed his attention. He stalked off toward the shoreline.

Hiccup found a spot on the rocks that hadn't been written on yet.

YOU CAN'T LEARN OUR LANGUAGE  
WITHOUT DRAGON EARS & THROAT

"Thanks, Hiccup. Uhhh, what are you going to do about that injured leg? It looks real bad."

Hiccup was putting off a decision about that. The pain was tolerable as long as he didn't put any weight on it. He knew that wouldn't last. He also knew that the sight of it was upsetting his friends. But the mental picture of being held down while Gobber took a saw... He couldn't stall much longer.

I'LL DECIDE LATER.  
I HAVE TO TALK TO THE DRAGONS NOW

He and Astrid flapped up and into the nest, leaving the Vikings to their emergency ship repairs.

Several dozen dragons had already returned to the nest. They were confused. They'd been sent out without a plan in broad daylight, which was unusual. They'd returned with food, and their offerings were ignored. They were hovering in front of a ledge, where Night-fury was trying to explain the new situation to them, when they saw New-night-fury and Small-night-fury.

"Is it true?" they asked. "Is the Mother really gone?"

"Of course it is; didn't Night-fury tell you? We enticed her into the air, shot her wings full of holes, and gravity did the rest. You can see what's left of her on the beach outside the nest."

"New-night-fury, you're hurt!" a female Zippleback called out.

"In wars, sometimes people get hurt," he said. "It's worth it to be free. Free! Do you understand what that _means?_ No more raids! No more send-outs and call-backs! No more giving up all our prey to feed someone who gives nothing in return. No more fear of getting eaten if we don't bring enough! We make our _own_ decisions now! Our lives are our own! We are _free!_"

"We're free?" one of them asked. "We are free!" said another. It built into a chant, getting steadily louder until the Vikings could hear it outside the mountain. "We are free! _We are free!_ WE ARE FREE!" The Vikings couldn't understand the words, but the dragons' roaring made them nervous. They worked as fast as they could to get away from this place.

Night-fury leaned over to him. "Nice speech. I was having trouble getting the idea across. What do you think we should do now?"

New-night-fury waited until the chant subsided. "Night-fury just asked me a very good question. 'What should we do now?' The answer is, anything we want to do! We can stay here, or if this place holds too many bad memories, we can make a new nest somewhere else. We can hunt and fish, and keep it all for ourselves. We can lay eggs and raise our young, and not worry about whether they'll be killed before they reach full adulthood. We can explore the world and make contact with other nests. We can fly around in _circles_ all day if that's what we want.

"Now here's a crazy idea. Now that we don't have to raid the humans anymore, maybe we could try to make friends with them? They're intelligent, social creatures, like us but not as strong."

"And they can't fly!" It sounded like a Nightmare's voice. Many dragons laughed at that.

"I know it sounds impossible," New-night-fury went on, "but we've seen some impossible things happen already. Keep an open mind."

"New-night-fury, is it true that one of those humans down there is your father?" That sounded like a Nadder.

"Yes, that's true. I've tried to talk to him; it's hard when he can't understand me. The real problem is, he can't accept a dragon as his son. He's working on that."

"Does he want you to go home with him?" the Nadder asked.

"Yes, he does. It would be hard for him, and hard for me, but that's what he wants."

"Are you going to leave us?"

New-night-fury wanted to be encouraging, but he couldn't lie. "I don't know."

That set off the crowd. "No!" "Don't go!" "Please don't leave us!" Again, the Vikings heard the dragons' commotion inside the mountain and got nervous.

New-night-fury turned away. Small-night-fury was surprised to see tears in his eyes.

"Hiccup? What's wrong?"

He turned his head to face her. "They want me to stay! Even though they don't need me as a protector anymore, they still want me here. They... they really _like_ me." He turned away again, very moved. "I never had that happen before."

"Yes, you did," said Toothless softly.

"Yeah, like he said," said Astrid. They both slid alongside him.

He wrapped one wing around each of them, grateful for the support. "You're right, both of you. I meant I never had a whole _village_ of people tell me they like me. It's an awesome feeling, but right now, it makes things complicated.

"They need me. My father needs me. What should I do?"

They didn't know what to tell him.


	20. Chapter 20

**Lighting and Death Itself** Chapter 20

"We've gone as far as we can go," Spitelout reported. "Without the right tools, we can't make the kinds of ship repairs we need. All our heavy tools are all back on Berk. It looks like we're stuck here."

That was not the kind of report Stoick wanted to hear. He much preferred reports about how Vikings can do anything if they put their minds to it. His second-in-command was an unimaginative man; putting his mind to a problem was not his strongest suit. Stoick might have to take charge directly if he and his warriors were ever going to get off this desolate island, and that would undermine the people's confidence in his second-in-command.

"What kinds of tools do we need to repair ships?" he asked. "We have hammers, we have axes, we can use our shields as hull patches. What else is there?"

"Derricks tall enough to step a mast with," Spitelout answered. "Hundreds of feet of heavy cable so all our men can pull together to move large pieces of ship. More hundreds of feet of line to mount sails with. We could make some small launches with what we've got, but if we don't want to spend the next month shuttling ourselves home, ten at a time, we need some war vessels. We just don't have the tools to build those here!"

Spitelout's voice dropped. "And another thing, Stoick. Those dragons are making me nervous. I know the black ones say they're peaceful, but I've never seen a peaceful dragon in my life! I don't dare put all our men to work on the ships; I've kept half of them near their weapons, just in case the lizards get out of control."

Off to the side, a small group of spectators was quietly viewing the scene. The group was small; the spectators themselves were not. They consisted of four Deadly Nadders, three Gronckles, a Monstrous Nightmare, and a Night Fury. Stoick was beginning to recognize the three black dragons, and he thought this one was the Astrid-dragon.

Vikings liked things to be stable and unchanging; it was easier to deal with life that way. Spitelout was a classic Viking. The idea that the dragons might no longer be hostile was taking its sweet old time sinking into his brain. Stoick was farther along in that process; it helped that one of those dragons was really his son, and that this fact had been beaten into _his_ brain with all the subtlety of a hammer blow. But it was still a novel concept.

"I think the Night Furies have the other dragons under control, Spitelout," Stoick said.

"Right. But who keeps the Night Furies under control?"

They paused to watch some of their men trying to raise a mast. If they were at home in Berk's harbor, they had a crane that would do the job in five minutes. They had no such equipment here. They were trying to raise it with ropes, but they didn't have enough leverage, and the mast was too heavy.

"Do you need more men?" Stoick called to Crabtail, the team leader.

"More men, more rope, and a little luck would be nice, too!" he called back. One of the ropes came untied, and they quickly lowered the mast before it fell.

The black dragon rumbled and growled for a few seconds, making the Vikings nervous. They got even more nervous when the Monstrous Nightmare flapped into the sky and flew over to where the mast lay on the ground. The men scattered in terror; some of them ran for their weapons.

"No, don't! Wait!" Stoick called. Something in his gut told him this wasn't a threat. All the men stopped where they were.

As they watched, the Nightmare grasped two of the ropes in its back claws and lifted the mast off the ground. It flapped toward the ship. Stoick suddenly realized what was going on.

"Spitelout, get some men on deck to help step the mast!"

Spitelout was frozen in place, staring, uncomprehending.

The chief took action. "Crabtail! Get your men up there so they can guide the mast in!" The team leader hesitated, then snapped out some quick orders. Three men nervously climbed into the hull of the ship as the dragon lowered the mast into position. It was about a foot too far forward; they pushed it into place.

One of them looked up at the huge dragon overhead. "Uhh, that's good! Let it go!" he shouted. The black dragon roared quickly, and the Nightmare released the ropes. The mast fell a foot and landed in its foundation. Crabtail got the rest of his team moving, and they soon had the mast fixed in place.

"I... don't believe it," Spitelout said out loud. "The dragons are _helping_ us repair our ships!"

Stoick came to a sudden realization. Their world was changing rapidly around them, and some Vikings might not be able to keep up with the changes. He needed a second-in-command who could function in any situation, not one who would be dumbstruck and immobilized when confronted with the totally unexpected.

He saw Gobber limping toward him to make a report. _Good timing, old friend,_ he thought. _I have a new challenge for you. Let's see if you're up to it._

"Stoick, we've found the back end o' one ship that's in pretty good shape, an' the front end of another, but bringin' them together... they're four hundred yards apart, an' this rocky beach is rough for ship handlin'."

"Don't tell me about it, Gobber," the chief smiled. "Tell Astrid."

"The _dragon?_" Gobber almost scratched his bare head with his hook-hand, which would not have been pretty.

"She can tell the other dragons what to do," Stoick said. "She's good at giving orders, they're strong, and together, we may be able to rebuild this fleet."

Gobber walked away, shaking his head. "Sure, talk to the dragon," he muttered. "Dragons know all about buildin' ships, don't they? And girlie-warrior dragons know more about it than the rest of 'em! 'Talk to the dragon,' he says! Maybe his helmet is on too tight." He stopped at a respectful distance from the black dragon and explained his problem.

The Night Fury looked into the distance for a few seconds, then let out a string of growls and grunts. She and two of the Gronckles lifted off. She growled and made a head gesture that had to mean "lead the way." He turned and hobbled toward the good stern section; they followed him in the air. "Now I'm takin' _orders_ from a dragon!" he muttered. "What'll I be doin' next? Cleanin' their teeth?"

He led the three dragons to the shattered stern. "This has to wind up over _there_ –" he pointed "– and it has to be facin' in _this_ direction." He gestured. The black dragon growled out what must have been instructions. The two Gronckles landed, set their massive heads against the ship's hull, and began pushing it across the rocky landscape.

Gobber stared in utter amazement, but that didn't last long. He quickly realized – this was like driving a team of draft horses, except with a _lot_ more power, and he needed a translator to get his commands across. That, and there wasn't much chance of draft horses breathing fire on the job.

"More to the left!" Gobber shouted. The Night Fury rumbled something, the Gronckles adjusted their pushing, and the hull swung ponderously to the left. Gobber got out in front of the whole operation, called out corrections to Astrid who passed them to the other two dragons, and in about twenty minutes, the back of the ship was up against the front half of the other ship. It would have taken the Vikings all day to move it that far, if they could have done it at all.

"Well done, Gobber!" Stoick clapped the smith on the back.

"Thank ye, though I didn't do much," he replied. "And that's somethin' ye don't see every day, for sure."

"What's that?" the chief asked. "Dragons helping people?"

"No, a lassie workin' as the foreman in a shipyard."

The Vikings set to work with the only two saws they could find, cutting the boards of the two half-ships so they would mate together and form one complete hull. When they were ready, Gobber asked Astrid for one more push from the Gronckles, which they did (after she woke them up). Now they just had to splice the two halves together and waterproof the joints. This was work that did not require dragons. The Gronckles and the Night Fury returned to the small group that was watching.

Back on the first ship, they had another problem. They had mounted the yard to the mast with some of the last of their remaining rope, and they'd found a sail that wasn't too badly burned. But how would they mount the sail to the yard? There just wasn't enough unburnt rope left.

Gobber didn't bother asking Stoick. He just limped over to Astrid and explained the problem. After a moment, she scratched some runes in the rocks.

MOUNT IT TEMPORARILY  
AND GET OUT OF THE WAY

The smith returned to the ship and gave the orders. Soon the sail was bravely hanging from the mast, held in place by a handful of fire-softened nails that would snap under any kind of pressure. The Night Fury gave some instructions to the Nadders, which strutted over to stand in front of the ship.

The rattling sound of their tail spines snapping into position made every warrior tense up. Those poisoned spines had been the death of many a Viking. More than a few of them reached for their weapons out of instinct. But Vikings were not the dragons' targets anymore. One of the Nadders whipped its tail and sent a line of spines straight into the yard, nailing the sail to it. The other three did likewise. When they were done, the sail was spiked firmly enough to withstand anything short of a full gale. The Night Fury growled something (she actually said "Very good shooting!"), and they all returned to watching the Vikings' progress.

"I never thought I'd see a positive use for those awful spines," Gobber muttered. "But, after all the other impossible things I've seen today, why not?"

By the end of the day, the Vikings had two seaworthy ships ready to launch. The Gronckles made short work of the launching process.

Also by the end of the day, the Vikings had a new second-in-command. "Spitelout, I'm not saying you aren't brave or loyal," Stoick explained. "But I need a man who can think as well as fight."

"That's not the Viking way," Spitelout protested.

"That's the _new_ Viking way," Stoick countered. "Things are changing all around us. Dragons can be our friends. Dragons are in our _families_, for some of us. We won't be raided any more. Our leaders _have_ to be able to handle changes like these. I'll be the first to admit, it's hard, and it's going to be hard for quite a while. Some of us are going to find it harder to change than others; I expect that. But the ones in charge have _got_ to be flexible."

"Who are you putting in my place?" Spitelout wondered.

"Someone who can change his attitude almost as fast as he can change his left arm," the chief replied.

He turned to Gobber. "It will take four – no, five trips for those two ships to carry all of us. Choose some crews for them, preferably volunteers, and divide everyone else into five groups. The wounded will go in the first group.

"We're going home."


	21. Chapter 21

**Lightning and Death Itself** Chapter 21

The word spread through Berk quickly when someone saw distant sails approaching. All the people who were left in town – the young, the old, and those who weren't allowed to be warriors for various reasons – were desperately hoping that this most recent expedition wasn't going to result in many lost ships and lost lives like all the others. They began lining the cliffs and the docks to see who was coming home.

Gunnarr and Edda Hofferson were among those who watched. He had been exempted from the raid because he was a valued tradesman (he was both the town's livestock veterinarian and the town butcher), and his wife stayed home to care for their two boys who were too young for war. Being excused from the raid brought them no joy, though. All joy had left their home on the day their Astrid disappeared.

The message she'd sent via her friends didn't help. It made no sense; why would she run away from home? She was happy, she loved her family, she was popular, and she was doing well in Dragon Training. The idea that she'd run off with the chief's spindly, accident-prone son was ludicrous, but it was either that, or no reason at all.

They always left an empty place at the table for her, hoping each day that this would be the day she'd come home. They'd forgive her for running, they'd forgive her for whatever wrong she'd done, they'd forgive her for the heartache, if she would just _come home!_

The initial sighting of the town's ships wasn't very encouraging. Twenty-one ships had sailed away; only two were coming back. Those two were tightly packed with Vikings, so the village's able-bodied population hadn't been _completely_ wiped out. No one would give up hope for their loved ones until the chief looked them in the eye and said, "I'm sorry." That was assuming the chief was among the survivors, of course. Viking chiefs usually didn't survive losing battles. It was an occupational hazard.

The depressed silence was broken by a startled female voice. "What are _those?_" The two ships were being followed by two black flying... things. If they were dragons, they were an unknown type. But if they were dragons, why were they peacefully following the ships, and why weren't the Vikings in the ships throwing spears and axes at them? The people were used to bad news; they had learned to handle that. The strange and the unknown – that, they didn't like so well.

The two ships glided silently into the docks of the harbor. Both had burnt timbers and frames, and the burn marks didn't line up from board to board. One of the ships had obviously been spliced together in the field from two different halves. The villagers didn't know what to make of that. Further speculation ended the moment Stoick opened his mouth.

"Make way! Make way for the wounded!" About a dozen walking wounded left the ships, with help from their shipmates, and made their way up the ramps toward Gothi's house. Most of them showed burn wounds, although one had apparently fallen a goodly distance. As each one passed the crowd gathered on the cliffs, some loved ones would leave the group and rush to greet their returning hero. No one wanted to see their family member wounded, no matter how honorable the scar, but in these circumstances, seeing them at all was a wonderful relief.

The chief led the other warriors up to the cliffs, followed by everyone who had waited on the docks for them. A handful of sailors greeted their families with joy, then went back to the docks, turned the ships around, and headed back out to sea. The rest stood beside Stoick as he braced himself for one of the hardest speeches he'd ever have to give to his tribe. The fact that it was nearly all good news didn't make it easier.

"Friends! Citizens of Berk! Let me tell you what happened out there. You are all going to find this hard to believe, _very_ hard. I assure you, it's hard for me, too, and I've been trying to come to terms with this for days. I am not crazy, I am not delirious, and I am not lying. These Vikings beside me are all witnesses, and they'll confirm that I'm speaking the truth.

"The first good news is that we did not lose a single warrior on this voyage!"

The cheer that went up was loud, but short-lived. An older man asked the question that was on everyone's mind – "Then where _is_ everybody?"

"Our ships were badly beaten up by a dragon; we lost the whole fleet. Those two ships were pieced together from the remnants. They'll have to make several trips to get all our people home. But they are _all_ coming home!" Now the cheer was whole-hearted. Stoick waited for it to end.

"The next good news is that the war with the dragons is over!"

That brought stunned silence, with murmured overtones. That wasn't quite the reaction Stoick had hoped for.

"You heard me! The dragons are _never_ going to raid us again!"

The buzz in the crowd began to grow. Someone shouted, "Does that mean you finally found the dragons' nest and took it?"

"That's what it means," Stoick grinned. "But that's not the reason why the war is over." His grin vanished. "This is the part that is going to be hard for you to believe. I know that, because I'm still having a hard time believing it. That's why I've brought all these witnesses to stand with me and testify that this is the truth.

"The war is over because the dragons are not our enemies any more."

If he said anything after that, it was drowned out in a sea of angry shouts and curses. Every soul in that crowd had lost a family member or a friend to the thieving, murderous dragons. How could they suddenly stop being enemies? Had he made some kind of _peace_ with them, dishonoring the memory of their lost loved ones? Stoick realized that the witnesses beside him might serve another useful function as well – bodyguards. He waited until the verbal storm subsided. There were still plenty of angry glares, but he could deal with those.

"Inside the nest, we found a giant dragon that ruled over all the others. The dragons did _all_ their raiding to feed this giant. If they didn't feed it, it ate _them_ instead."

"Was it bigger than a Monstrous Nightmare?" a child wanted to know.

"It was as long as _six_ Monstrous Nightmares," Gobber answered. "Four legs, six eyes, spikes on its back, a club for a tail... ye never _saw_ such a monster! It burned _all_ our ships with _one_ fire shot!" That brought the crowd to silence, even though Gobber was known to exaggerate the strengths of the dragons he faced.

"I'm sure you're wondering, how could we fight something like that and not lose a man?" Stoick continued. "The answer – and this is the _really_ hard part – is, we didn't fight it. We _couldn't_ fight it. The dragons fought it for us." As the crowd began to protest again, he turned to the Vikings beside him. "Is this the truth?" he demanded. They all nodded and voiced their agreement. The crowd settled down.

"Now that the giant dragon is dead, the other dragons will leave us alone. They like fresh, raw fish better than anything else, so they'll never steal our livestock again."

"How could you possibly know if that's true or not?" an older man demanded.

"This is the really, _really_ hard part," Stoick said. "The dragons told us so."

He'd expected silence. He'd expected disbelief. He'd expected anger. What he didn't expect was the whole town _laughing_ at him. That was hard to bear.

"Do you want me to prove it?" he bellowed. Even his mighty voice was hard to hear over the howls and catcalls of his people. "Because I will. Right now!" He turned away from them, stepped to the edge of the cliffs, and waved his hands over his head.

The two black flying things, which had been tracing circles in the sky half a mile away, turned and flew toward the village. They landed on the cliffs, one on either side of Stoick, showing themselves to be black dragons of an unknown but fearful-looking type. The laughter stopped instantly. One of them snarled viciously on landing, causing the group to draw back in alarm. A few of the villagers noticed that one of its legs was badly injured, and wondered if the snarl might have been from pain and not anger.

"Yes, if you were wondering, these are Night Furies," Stoick said. "They fought bravely to protect us; they're the ones who killed the giant dragon. They told me these things about dragons because they know how to write, and they can understand us when we speak to them."

"Do they understand when we say, 'Dragons go home'?" an old woman yelled. Several other people shouted encouragement.

"They _are_ home," Stoick said firmly. That brought silence.

"There is some kind of magic at work here. I don't understand it, and I don't like to think about some parts of it. But these dragons have proven, beyond any possible doubt, that they are telling the truth." He rested a hand on the injured dragon's head. That drew a gasp from the crowd.

"This one... is my son, Hiccup. He's been turned into a dragon. But it's still him on the inside."

The only sound was the breaking of waves on the rocks far below them. No one could think of any possible reply. They just stared. If their chief wasn't surrounded by witnesses whom they all knew and trusted, they would have condemned him as a madman on the spot. But the witnesses all nodded. Their chief, who hated dragons with a passion few could match, was standing next to the most feared dragon in their history, with one hand on its head and no weapon in his hand, and the dragon wasn't biting his hand off. What possible reply could they give? They stared and waited to see what would happen next.

The other dragon slowly walked toward the group. All eyes were on it. The people in the front tried to give ground, but the ones behind them got in the way and kept them from going anywhere. The dragon stopped about three feet from Mrs. Hofferson. It reached out with its foreleg and scratched one small word on the rocks.

MAMA

Edda stared at the word, then at the dragon. If the chief was right, then this was her daughter. The dragon was her daughter. Her daughter had come home. Her daughter was a dragon who had come home. Daughter... dragon... daughter dragon daughterdragondaughterdragon...

The human mind has limits to what it can handle, and it has defenses if those limits are breached. Edda Hofferson fainted dead away. Gunnarr and an older woman caught her as she fell, and lowered her to the ground gently. The woman tended to her as Gunnarr turned back to face the dragon.

Its bat-like wings and black color certainly made it look frightening. But its eyes were not the eyes of evil or murder. It moved to take a step toward the group.

"Stay back, Night Fury!" Gunnarr ordered shakily. "Leave us alone! Haven't you done enough to us, you... you _monster?_"

Those eyes actually looked hurt. It backed off a step and scratched another message on the rock.

PLEASE DON'T BE MAD, PAPA

Gunnarr Hofferson suddenly knew how it felt for a sword to pierce a man's heart.

He felt a flood of unhappy memories from his past, from the many times he would come home angry after a bad day in the butcher shop, shouting and looking for things to throw, and his tiny daughter would cling to his leg and beg him, "Please don't be mad, Papa!" Her words usually drew the sting from his rage. He couldn't be angry when she clung to him like that.

No one outside his own immediate household could _possibly_ know those words, or their effect on him.

Now those words had been carved in stone, right in front of him and everyone else in the village, by the hand of a... a... a _dragon?_ How could he believe such a thing?

Some things are simply unbelievable. Aren't they?

Slowly, he reached out a shaking hand. Just as slowly, the dragon stepped forward. It stopped and lowered its head, making a low burbling sound that wasn't threatening at all. He stretched his hand the remaining three inches and laid it on the dragon's nose. It blinked and looked back at him. He tried to speak, but his throat tightened and his voice completely failed him. He barely whispered one word.

"Astrid...?"

The great eyes blinked wetly. It slowly bobbed its head up and down, without breaking contact with his hand. Gunnarr's eyes became quite moist as well. Then they overflowed.

His choked sob was the only sound to be heard. No one else moved or made a sound. Everyone was staring at the impossible scene playing out in front of them. Some were unwilling to believe. Others desperately wanted to believe.

Some things are simply unbelievable. Yet they cannot be denied.

The village of Berk began to change that day. Some of the changes were small, some were huge. But of all the mental images Stoick would remember from those first few days of the homecoming, that picture of a tearful Gunnarr Hofferson on one knee, with one hand on the shoulder of his unconscious wife, and the other hand on the nose of the dragon that was his daughter, was the one he would never, _ever_ forget.

How could he? He knew _exactly_ how the poor man felt.


	22. Chapter 22

**Lightning and Death Itself** Chapter 22

"That was really hard."

Hiccup and Astrid were flying back from Berk to their nest, after helping Stoick convince the town that the dragon wars were really over. Astrid had also had to convince her parents that she was really their daughter, and that the only reason she had run away from home was to keep the villagers from killing her now that she'd been turned into a dragon. It had been a painful and emotional reunion.

"At least they finally believe it's me," she went on. "Maybe I'll be able to visit them some day soon, once the shock has worn off for them."

Hiccup didn't respond. She glanced at him. His jaw was clenched shut, and his eyes were slits. He was clearly in pain.

"Hiccup, is your leg getting worse?"

"It's really starting to hurt," he grunted. "Astrid, I... I think I need to land and rest for a few minutes." The Hiccup of old might have had that reaction to a paper cut, but for New-night-fury, that meant the pain had to be agonizing.

"We're out over the open ocean," she answered. "I can't think of any islands between here and the nest. And we're more than halfway, so turning back won't help. Just keep going."

He nodded and gritted his teeth. After a few more minutes, he said, "Astrid... please fly higher and see if there's any land in sight. Anything at all." She nodded and gained some altitude.

"There's a very small island off to the right, about a mile away," she called.

"I have to land, _now!_" he cried. "All my muscles are cramping up." He curled off awkwardly to the right, with Astrid right behind him, and glided stiffly until he reached the tiny islet. It wasn't much more than a rocky peak that stuck straight out of the ocean. It had no beach and no soil, just a couple of hardy pine trees and some moss on the rocks.

Hiccup tried to favor his injured leg when he landed, but he managed to hit it on the ground anyway. Immediately he fell over on his right side with a roar of pain, and lay there.

"Is there anything I can do?" she asked.

"I just need to rest," he said. "Oh, _man,_ that hurts! I almost wish you could kiss it better."

She started to swat him with her tail, then stopped herself when she realized she might hit him in his bad leg. "That _would have been_ for being fresh!" she snapped. Then she looked thoughtful. "You know, I _could_ make it better."

"No, you can't! Don't even try!" he burst out. "You need that Power to make another Night Fury! Don't you _dare_ waste it on something stupid like this!"

"Could this be the Night Fury who used up his own Power to heal a friend's tail?" she demanded.

"No, this is the Night Fury who used up his own Power to save another Night Fury's life and get him back in the sky," he answered. "You can't compare a bad leg to that!"

"A 'bad leg'?" she said. "Hiccup, this is more than just a bad leg! If you don't get something done about it soon, you might..." She couldn't finish.

"Maybe it would help if I soaked it in the ocean," he thought out loud.

"Or maybe you could attract sharks with an open wound like that," she countered. "You stay right here."

"Fine, Miss Bossy," he sighed, and slumped his head to the ground.

"I'm not saying it to be bossy!" she burst out. "I'm saying it because I'm really worried about you and I..."

"And what, Astrid?"

"I don't want to say it," she murmured, looking away. "Are you feeling any better, now that you're on the ground?"

"My leg feels worse, but the rest of me is a little better. I just need to rest. Fighting this pain is..."

"It's taking a lot out of you. I can see that by looking at you. What are you going to do?"

Hiccup lifted his head to look at her. "I think I have two choices. Either I can let Gobber take it off, or I can ask Toothless how dragons handle stuff like this. I don't think I'm going to like either option."

"Is there anything I can do?" she asked again.

"No... just stay close. You make things better when you're close." He closed his eyes and lowered his head again. She covered him with a wing. Within a few minutes, his breath was soft and steady. Whether he was actually asleep, or just resting, she didn't know. She didn't want to ask him, in case he _was_ asleep.

She let him rest for hours; his body and mind obviously needed it. She sat beside him, trying not to look at his hideously injured leg. With nothing else to do, she had time to sit and think.

It had been less than two months since their lives had been completely upended. She'd gone from a Viking warrior maiden, training to fight and kill dragons, to a Night Fury, trying to fight Vikings without killing them, and now she wasn't even fighting them any more. Hiccup had gone from the most incompetent and unloved Viking in his village to the most competent and beloved dragon in his nest. The two of them together had gone from half-hearted adversaries, to... what?

He'd been very up-front with his feelings lately – he really liked her. No, that wasn't true. She shook her head and forced herself to be honest. He _loved_ her. He always had. He wouldn't come out and say it, but after their few moments of sharing TrueSight, he couldn't deny it if he tried. If they were still human, he surely would be badgering his father to set up the engagement with her parents.

How would she have felt about that? Maybe it didn't matter, but if she could answer that question, it might help answer the _real_ question – how did she feel about him now?

If she'd been betrothed to Hiccup the Useless a year ago, she would have been horrified. She'd have begged and pleaded for her parents to change their minds. If that gambit had failed, her only alternative would have been to bully and terrorize Hiccup into letting her call the shots in the relationship, and then arrange things so they had as little contact with each other as possible, married or not.

That was before their first TrueSight showed her how familiar he was with bullying and terror. She felt ashamed that she even might have _considered_ treating him that badly. He might have been incompetent, accident-prone, and generally weird, but he never deserved _that_ kind of treatment. Still, the thought of being Hiccup's wife at that time would have been pretty close to the end of the world for her.

What about their last moments as human beings? She had spent weeks bitterly resenting his sudden success in Dragon Training, and the careless ease with which he'd surpassed her. She'd finally learned his secret – that he was training with a wild dragon – and was on the way to turn him in to the town leaders, when he and the dragon had literally swept her off her feet. They'd taken her for the most amazing ride she'd ever had (up until then), and she was beginning to warm up to him. What if she'd become engaged to him at that moment – how would she have felt about _that?_

Well, she'd rather have had him than Snotlout or any of her other choices. He was obviously braver than anyone knew, and the artificial tail that kept Toothless flying showed that he was capable of doing things right now and then. She might have wanted a longer-than-usual engagement, just to let him grow up from a boy into something like a man. On the whole, though, it would not have been the end of her world. She might even have welcomed it.

How about now? Now, Hiccup was better known as New-night-fury. His incompetence had vanished with his humanity; as soon as he became a dragon, it seemed like he did everything right on the first try, even though the things he was learning were physically impossible to him before. His timidity and low self-esteem had taken longer to fade away. But he'd eventually convinced himself, long after he'd convinced everyone else, that he was not a failure. He was the equal of his friend and tutor, Toothless, in most ways, and possibly better in some ways. All the dragons loved and respected him. If the Hiccup of a year ago could have met the Hiccup of today, and seen past their appearances into each other's minds, they wouldn't recognize each other.

How did she feel about him now?

She certainly respected him. He was kind, gentle, sensible, fair, clever... all the traits that had made him a failure as a Viking. But now he was also strong, brave, and decisive. He'd be the ultimate Viking now, except he was the ultimate dragon now.

The fact that he was an ultimate "anything" didn't mean much to her, like it might have meant a year ago. It wasn't that he had finally found his confidence. It was that he was now comfortable in his own skin, black and scaly though it was. He wasn't putting impossible pressure on himself any more. He had nothing to prove; he was content with who he was and what he was (and he was awesome). _That_ was the core of what drew her to him.

Was that attraction enough to sustain a life together?

Well, did she have any choice? Toothless had a distant history as a human, but there was just an air of different-ness about him. He'd been a dragon too long; with her own humanity still fresh in her mind, she couldn't think of him as a possible partner. She could choose to stay alone, but she knew she didn't want that. She could search the world and try to find another Night Fury who attracted her, if there was one. Or she could use her own Power to make a Night Fury out of a man whom she found appealing.

But there was no point in that last option, when sleeping next to her was a _very_ appealing man who'd already been turned into a Night Fury.

Still, she wasn't sure. Night Furies could live for centuries. She didn't want to be stuck with the wrong partner for that length of time.

She just watched Hiccup as he rested. Toothless had been right after all – Night Furies were _very_ good-looking dragons. She chuckled quietly at how her taste in males had changed. Two months ago, New-night-fury would have been something for her to kill, not to consider marrying.

Once Hiccup awoke, he'd be strong enough to fly back to the nest. When they got there, he could rest some more, and then make a decision about his leg. She had no idea what was best; if he asked her advice, she didn't know...

Had he _breathed_ recently?

She held her breath and leaned toward him. She couldn't hear anything. His chest wasn't moving. A wave of panic rose up in her –

...And then he exhaled. He growled quietly; one of his forelegs twitched. He was dreaming. His breath had probably stopped for a second, maybe a bit more. It had seemed a lot longer than that to her.

She considered how she'd felt in that endless awful second, when she thought he might be gone forever, and all her doubts flew away like frightened Terrible Terrors. She was sure now.

She woke him up as the sun was setting. "We told the other dragons we'd be home before the day was over. How do you feel?"

"My leg still feels like it's been branded," he groaned as he stretched. "The rest of me feels much better. I think I can make it home now." He flapped experimentally, nodded at her, and they sprang into the air together.

As they glided homeward, she sideslipped until their wingtips overlapped by about a foot. "Hiccup?"

"Hmmm?" he asked, looking at her curiously.

"I love you, Hiccup."

He sideslipped and increased the contact to about three feet. "I love you too, Astrid."

She slipped in and made it four feet. "I know," she smiled.

They flew the rest of the way home that way.


	23. Ending 1-a

**Lightning And Death Itself** Ending #1-a

A/N What will Hiccup do – stay in the nest or return to Berk? I couldn't decide which of two endings was best for this story. So I'm posting both of them. Here's the first half of ending #1.

**o**

Hiccup was discovering yet another advantage to being a dragon. Dragons heal very rapidly from injuries. It was only three days ago that Gobber had removed half of his wounded leg, working quickly while Fishlegs knocked him out with handfuls of dragon-nip grass. Already he was well enough to fly and stand upright. Gobber had checked out the wound today, pronounced it surprisingly good, and then shaken his head. "What's the world comin' to? I carved up a dragon with me sharpest instruments, to help 'im _live!_"

Hiccup wasn't even close to fully recovered, of course. Astrid and Toothless had limited him to easy tasks that didn't require any walking. Today's project was supervising the release of the dragons from Berk's training ring. They had been cooped up in tiny holding cells for years, and only released for short periods so young Vikings could learn to fight them. They were frustrated and belligerent, and no one could blame them. Hiccup's role was to speak their language and calm them down so they wouldn't attack the humans who were setting them free. His classmates in the final dragon-training class had been given that dubious honor.

As they approached the ring, Fishlegs looked thoughtful. "Hiccup, this is going to sound totally weird, but I'm going to miss that Gronckle. I mean, we kept trying to kill each other over and over, but we never did, and I got used to seeing him every few days. He's kind of cute, in an ugly sort of a way."

Hiccup scratched on the rocks that surrounded the ring.

YOU COULD MAKE FRIENDS  
WITH HIM IF YOU WANT TO

"I could? Yeah, I _want_ to! Uhhh... how?"

WHEN HE COMES OUT,  
OFFER HIM A LITTLE DRAGON-NIP.  
IF HE LIKES YOU, RUB HIS NOSE  
SAY NICE THINGS

"Okay. If you say so." All of Fishlegs' training had been to fight dragons, even though he hadn't been very good at it. The idea of approaching one with no hammer, no shield, nothing but a few blades of grass, left him feeling 97% helpless. But Hiccup said it was good, and a dragon should know about these things, right?

Hiccup approached the doors. "Is there a Gronckle in there?"

"Yes!" came a female voice. "I'm Gronckle-lugs-much-meat-back-to-the-Mother. You sound like a Night Fury. Can you get me out of here? _Please?_"

"The humans are about to let you out, sister. Don't attack them! Everything is different now. The Mother is dead, the wars are over, and we're done fighting humans. The big one wants to be your friend."

"That one? He never did me any harm. Okay, I'll check him out. Just get me _out_ of here!"

Hiccup turned and gestured with his head to Tuffnut, who swung the handle and opened the doors. The Gronckle shot out of captivity, but instead of searching for rocks and targets, she hovered and slowly rotated from side to side. The door to the ring was open; she could escape with ease.

The big human stood to the side, looking extremely nervous. "Nice dragon, nice dragon..." As the Gronckle got closer, Fishlegs held out a few blades of the grass.

The Gronckle took a suspicious sniff, then a bigger one. Her face lit up, and she flopped to the ground, waggling her stubby tail back and forth. Her rumbling growls meant nothing to the humans, but Hiccup heard, "Oh, baby, you _know_ what I like!"

SHE LIKES YOU

Fishlegs rubbed her nose as Hiccup had suggested; his face also lit up. "Oooh, you're such a cute little dragon! We're going to be friends forever! Hiccup, what should I call him?" The Night Fury started to scratch the Gronckle's name. "That's kind of long. Can I call him Lugmeat? No, Meatlug!"

Hiccup pointed at his previous message, trying to call attention to the word "she," but Fishlegs was oblivious. Oh, well; he'd find out soon enough.

Some people say twins think alike; others say they share telepathy. All Hiccup knew is that Ruffnut and Tuffnut nodded to each other, walked up to him, and said in perfect unison, "We want the Zippleback!"

"And I want that Monstrous Nightmare!" Snotlout exclaimed, caught up in the moment. "The most awesome Viking should get the most awesome dragon, right?"

Hiccup realized his morning had just gotten a lot busier than he'd planned.

That afternoon, he was back in the nest, explaining everything that had happened. He had a rapt audience; the other dragons were very curious about humans, now that they weren't the enemy any more.

"I might want to make friends with a human," Nadder-turquoise-loves-her-own-reflection said. "It would show them there's no hard feelings, and it would be nice to have someone who can scratch where it itches. Maybe he'd even shine my scales for me. Humans are kind of ugly, all soft and pink, but I could get used to them." Many of the others agreed.

"But that means you'd have to leave the nest and live with _them_," a Nightmare commented.

"Oh. I hadn't thought of that," said the Nadder.

"I know!" exclaimed Small-night-fury. "We can start a new nest in the village! It's a safe place now; there's plenty of room and lots of interesting people. Best of all, it's close to this nest, so if we want to visit or if any of us changes our minds, we can go from here to there any time we want!" Everyone liked that idea.

"This new nest will need a Night Fury, won't it?" asked Gronckle-grouchy-questions-everything. They all looked at their three Night Furies, who looked at each other.

"I'll go," New-night-fury said. "My father really wants me to come home, but I hate leaving all of you. If I could take a bunch of you with me, that would be the best of both worlds."

Small-night-fury slid closer to New-night-fury. "Wherever you go, that's where I'll go." Several of the dragons nudged each other and winked at that.

"I'll stay," said Night-fury. "Someone has to keep _this_ crazy nest under control."

New-night-fury looked sad. "We'll be separated, bud."

"Not by much; we're less than half an hour from you. It took you longer than that to walk from the village to the cove when you were human. We can see each other every day, just like we used to, except now, we can both fly."

The next morning, Stoick awoke to find a message carved in the ground in front of his house.

AT NOON, I'M COMING HOME  
WITH A BUNCH OF DRAGONS WHO  
WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH  
HUMANS LIKE THE TEENS DID.  
WE'LL ALL LIVE IN BERK TOGETHER

Stoick did a facepalm. "A whole _village_ full of dragons! Walking in our streets and roosting on our houses! What _is_ this? Punishment from the gods?"

Hiccup was as good as his word. It wasn't the first time a cloud of dragons had descended on Berk. But it _was_ the first time they landed without attacking, and it was the first time they were welcomed instead of fought off. The catapults remained unmanned, and the night-vision torches were filled with fish as a peace offering.

The whole town turned out to watch them arrive. Some came out of idle curiosity, but many came because they'd heard about the teens and their dragons yesterday. They wanted to make friends with a dragon themselves, or at least see their neighbor do it so they could think it over.

As soon as the dragons landed, they began searching the crowds of people for someone who caught their eye. New-night-fury and Small-night-fury guided the dragons, while the humans got advice from the teens, especially Fishlegs, who quickly emerged as an expert. The pairing-off process went almost without a hitch, and Berk's society was radically transformed in a day.

Some of the dragons preferred a limited independence, and didn't bond with any humans; they were tolerated in town. Most of them made a special human friend and enjoyed spending time with that friend, even to the point of going flying with them. Those dragons were welcomed, and wandered the streets freely. It was common to find them resting on the roofs of the houses they once tried to burn.

But two special dragons were more than tolerated or welcomed. They were honored. They were given first pick of the fish that the dragons ate, and they were greeted by name wherever they went.

Everyone in Berk learned to tell their Night Furies apart on sight. Astrid was the smaller one, and Hiccup was easy to recognize, with half of his left hind leg missing. Gobber had offered to make him an artificial leg, but Hiccup had declined.

3 IS ENOUGH FOR THE GROUND.  
I'M A CREATURE OF THE SKY

Stoick and the Hofferson family had formally agreed that their children would be a couple, but they didn't call it engagement or marriage. Hiccup had explained (after talking to Toothless about it) that dragons didn't marry, but chose partners and kept them until they both agreed to choose someone else. Hiccup and Astrid had chosen each other and agreed to _never_ choose anyone else, and said so with scratched runes in front of witnesses from both families. That satisfied the proprieties for all concerned.

A special house was built for them; the humans called it the Dragons' Nest, or simply the Nest. It was the first time in history that a building was designed with input from dragons. The ground floor had a high ceiling; it was open to the elements and empty, except for a human-sized stairway to the second floor and a fire pit, which the dragons could light on cold winter days. New-night-fury and Small-night-fury used that space to hear and deal with the problems that came up among the other dragons of Berk.

The second floor was also open, for easy take-offs and landings, but had shutters designed by Hiccup that the dragons could raise and lower by pulling on ropes with their mouths. The second floor's main features were a large, smooth stone pad, suitable for two Night Furies to sleep on; a smaller stone for Toothless, who was a frequent visitor; a long, shallow sandbox for writing messages to Stoick and the other humans who visited them; and, off in the corner, an empty wooden box about two feet square and half a foot high.

"I still don't know why you two insisted on that box," Stoick said to them one day. "It's just taking up space. What's it for?"

Astrid wrote out the reply, with a sideways smile at her mate.

CONGRATULATIONS, GRANDPA.  
I'M GOING TO LAY AN EGG!


	24. Ending 1-b

**Lightning And Death Itself** Ending #1-b

A/N What will Hiccup do – stay in the nest or return to Berk? I couldn't decide which of two endings was best for this story. So I'm posting both of them. Here's the second half of ending #1.

**WARNING:** this story contains general (not detailed) descriptions of a burn victim. If one of you readers has been through that, or is close to someone who has, I don't want to blindside you.

**o**

The nesting box never got used, though. Toothless hadn't had time to tell Hiccup and Astrid _everything_ about being dragons, and one of his oversights was the annual flight to the northern island where eggs are laid and hatched. (The omission was understandable, since Toothless had never gone on one of those flights.) The Night Furies' first clue was when, in the middle of their preparations for Snoggletog, a great cloud of dragons flew overhead, loudly inviting all the dragons of Berk to join them.

As the Nadders and Nightmares around them sprang into the air, Astrid turned to Hiccup. "I'm feeling something, like we should go along with them."

"I feel it, too," he nodded. "It must be one of our new instincts. Let's go!" They leaped upward and joined the huge migration.

Word quickly spread among the other dragons. "Night Furies!" "Night Furies are coming!" "The Night Furies are going to lay eggs with us!"

Hiccup flew alongside an unusually chatty group of Nadders. "If you don't mind my asking, why is everyone so excited about us?"

"Don't you _know?_" the leader exclaimed. "Our group of nests hasn't seen a Night Fury egg in over _sixty years!_ Your baby is going to be _very_ special!"

Hiccup glided back to rejoin Astrid. "I get the idea we aren't going to have much time to ourselves on this trip."

He was right. When they landed on the rocky shore of the warm-water lagoon, it seemed like every female dragon on the island stopped by to greet them, and make sure Small-night-fury was feeling okay. "We know this is your first egg, but don't worry," an old Gronckle chattered away. "Just do what comes naturally. And don't you _dare_ keep it a secret!" The two black dragons stretched out on the rocks and waited for nature to take its course.

Later that afternoon, a fuss arose on the other side of the lagoon. "Astrid, will you be okay for a few minutes? I think they need a Night Fury over there." She nodded, and he glided over to see what the problem was. Two late-arriving young Nadder couples had both landed at the same time, and they were both claiming the last open stretch of shore line, which clearly wasn't big enough for all of them.

"New-night-fury, is there any fair way to settle this?" one of the males asked. "I don't want to deny that one her egg-laying place, but I really think we got here first."

The other male was about to reply, but New-night-fury held up a paw for silence. He pondered for a moment. "How about if both of you males roost on the cliffs, right up there? That leaves plenty of room for both females on the shore, and you'll still be able to see everything, so you can tell when you're needed."

The other male smacked himself in the head with his wing. "Why didn't I think of that? Thanks, New-night-fury; you're awesome." The males winged up to the higher rocks, leaving their mates to start swapping dragon-girl-talk.

"No major problems," he told Astrid when he returned. "I was just doing what Night Furies do."

"Me, too," she smiled, and swung her tail aside, revealing a single jet-black egg, about seven inches long, in a secure place on the rocks. She looked very pleased with herself.

Hiccup stared at the egg, his mouth hanging open, speechless. He looked back and forth from Astrid to the egg several times before he was finally able to stammer, "Uhhh... uhhh... wow!"

Half a minute later, the commotion started. Someone else noticed the egg, and it set off a mini-migration. Every female on the island wanted to see it! There was much ooh'ing and ahh'ing, and some speculation about whether it would be a girl or a boy. "Most of us have never seen a Night Fury egg before," several of them told Astrid as they looked on.

In the middle of all this, Astrid cried out softly. Hiccup was at her side in an instant. "What's wrong?"

"It feels like the egg did, but I've already laid that. What else could it... ooh, there it is again!"

Hiccup thought hard. Finally, he smiled. "Small-night-fury, don't twins run in your family?"

"Yes, my mother is a twin, and my father had cousins who were identical... oh, no! Hiccup, you don't think... but Toothless always said _one_ egg a year! Just one!"

"Toothless doesn't know everything," New-night-fury said. "Everyone, take a step or two back, please! I think we've got another egg on the way!" They all backed up in complete silence, and a minute later, there were _two_ jet-black eggs on the rocks.

_This_ was something new! No one could _ever_ recall a Night Fury laying twins before; it was completely unheard of. For some reason, this made the dragons esteem their Night Furies even more highly, especially Small-night-fury. "They act as though we did something to _make_ this happen," New-night-fury said to his mate.

"Well, we _did,_" she grinned. "We just didn't know what a good job we were doing."

The dragons all changed her name to Night-fury-mother-of-twins that day. It took her a few days to completely adjust to her new name, but it wasn't a hard transition. "It always kind of bothered me, being reminded that I'm smaller than you," she told New-night-fury. "Now I'm famous!"

For the next three days, Astrid curled up protectively around her eggs and went nowhere. She had a steady stream of visitors who were checking up on her (and the eggs), so she wasn't out of the social loop. Hiccup joined some of the other males as they caught fish to bring back to their mates and early-hatching babies. His ability to stun a whole school of fish with one firebolt was much appreciated by the others, who let him gather all he could carry before swooping in to help themselves to the rest.

After dropping off a couple of redfish for his mate, Hiccup said, "I just noticed – Toothless isn't here."

"He wouldn't be," Astrid replied. "Only the egg-laying females and their mates come here."

"Oh. That's right." Hiccup looked a bit sad as he headed out to sea again.

Near the end of the third day, the eggs began to wobble. "Move it, Hiccup!" Astrid ordered. "Don't bother running to get the midwife, because there isn't one! It's time!" She retracted her teeth, picked up the nearest egg in her mouth, and dropped it into the warm waters of the lagoon. He did the same with the other egg. They both watched and waited.

After about a minute, they heard a muted underwater explosion and watched a cloud of bubbles rising to the surface. A few seconds later, a tiny black dragon, less than a foot and a half long, stuck his nose above the water and took his first breath. Then he paddled to the shore, where his parents met him. He instinctively rubbed noses with Astrid, then Hiccup. "Ma-ma! Pa-pa!"

Hiccup went completely to mush. "Awww, _look_ at him! He's beautiful!" A few seconds later, they heard a second submerged blast. This time, a little girl dragon poked her head out of the water. Hiccup thought his heart might melt.

"Here's _another_ thing you did right on the first try," Astrid smiled. "Go ahead! Do the 'proud papa' bit. You know you want to."

"Well, they _did_ say we shouldn't keep it a secret." He flew straight up about a hundred feet. "Everyone! Listen up! I have something _important_ to say!" He waited until the usual dragon hubbub had died down. "We just got two brand-new little Night Furies! A boy and a girl!"

What happened next was not a mini-migration; it was more of a stampede. _Everyone, _male and female alike, _had_ to see the newest additions to their favorite family. Some walked over, others flew over, and everyone was ecstatic. The littlest Night Furies lay curled up between their mother's forelegs, blinking with curiosity at all the attention they were getting. Hiccup basked in the compliments, until Astrid swatted him with her tail and made a swallowing motion.

"Oh, that's right! I'm fishing for _four_ now." He flapped seaward in search of fish, grabbed a big one for Astrid and a gullet-full of little ones for the babies, and returned to feed his son and daughter their first meal. He was powerfully struck by the sight of his tiny children sitting with their mouths open, completely trusting him to feed them and keep them alive. _I just became a __father__,_ he thought. _This is scary; I saw how my dad struggled with it. And yet... I'm starting to think I might even do __this__ right._

The next two weeks flew by. Hiccup and Astrid took turns looking after their babies while the other went out for food. Their children grew fast; they took their first tentative flights at eight days, and were soon zipping all over the island, playing with the other hatchlings. They always came back exhausted, and the four of them curled up to sleep together every night.

"If you'd told me a year ago that my son would be black and scaly, I would have had a heart attack," Hiccup murmured to his mate early one morning.

"You'd have had a heart attack at the thought of even _having_ a son," she replied. She looked up; dragons were beginning to rise into the air all over the island. "I think it's time for us to head home," she added. "What do you think, kids? Are you ready for your first big adventure?" They nodded excitedly. Four Night Furies joined the stream of dragons who were winging their way homeward. The little ones didn't quite have the stamina to fly all the way, so they rode on their mother's and father's backs for the last few miles.

Ruffnut was waiting for them on the cliffs. She'd seen some dragons arrive already with their babies, so she knew what was going on. She also knew her own dragon was a male, so there weren't any dragonets in her immediate future. But her friend Astrid would certainly be coming in with a little one.

She saw the two Night Furies from a distance and waved her arms at them; they altered course and landed on the cliffs, one on each side of her. She noticed the baby dragon on her friend's back and started to ooh and ahh over her, then saw the other little one on Hiccup's back. It took a second to register.

"You had _twins?_" They nodded. "_Excellent!_ Twins are awesome! I should know." She ran off to tell everyone.

Young-boy-night-fury and Young-girl-night-fury quickly became the talk of the town, even though they were only two of many brand-new dragons there. They were about three feet from nose to tail by now. Their parents had trained them about humans and some of their strange ways, so they adapted to village life easily. The children adored them, the adults offered them fish until they couldn't eat any more, and even Stoick smiled at the sight of them.

"They're not _quite_ what I had in mind when I dreamed about having grandchildren, but they're a fine-looking pair," he beamed as he hesitantly scratched behind the little boy dragon's ears.

Astrid's parents were a little more hesitant about the whole thing. The shock of learning what had happened to their daughter still seemed fresh to them; their minds understood that this was Astrid now, but their hearts had trouble accepting the new reality. They readily acknowledged that the two little Night Furies were Hiccup and Astrid's children, but the family connection to themselves... not so much. Hiccup and Astrid were patient; they knew first-hand how hard it could be to adjust to that kind of change.

The breakthrough moment came when Young-boy-night-fury climbed into Edda Hofferson's lap and rubbed his nose on her chin. She laughed and rubbed his neck, which made him purr, and which made Young-girl-night-fury join her brother in their grandmother's lap for her share of the attention. She shed a tear and smiled at the same time, and said to Astrid, "They're beautiful." From then on, things got better between the human side of the family and the dragon side.

Toothless' reaction to meeting them was classic. New-night-fury had firmly instructed all the other dragons to say nothing about his children when they returned, so all Night-fury had was curiosity... and he was seething with it! He flew into Berk the morning after the dragons returned, eager to see the newest addition to his species, and caught Hiccup's family as they were rising. He noticed Young-boy-night-fury jumping on his mother's back, and was about to congratulate her when he saw Young-girl-night-fury curled up next to her father. He swiveled his head back and forth between them, stammering incoherently, until Hiccup and Astrid had to laugh.

"_You're_ the one who told us to help repopulate the Night Furies!" Hiccup beamed. "Don't blame _us_ if we took you seriously. Kids, say 'hi' to Night-fury, but you can call him Uncle Toothless!" They swarmed over him, laughing and giggling playfully until he had to smile as well.

Someone else who was totally taken with them was Guana, the shepherd girl. She seemed to prefer the company of dragons to humans anyway. She always waved at Hiccup and Astrid as she hobbled to the sheep pastures in the morning, and waved again as she made her awkward way home. She took two small fresh fish in her pocket every morning, in case she met the little Night Furies, which always happened because they made sure to seek her out in the pastures whenever they went flying.

"Why does she look so different from the other humans?" Young-boy-night-fury asked his parents one day.

"When she was a baby, her house caught on fire," New-night-fury answered, without saying how that fire started. "She was badly burned before they could rescue her. It's a miracle she lived at all. But her face and her limbs are never going to heal."

"That's sad," Young-girl-night-fury decided. "She likes dragons so much. Why don't people like her?"

"They... aren't comfortable with the way she looks," Night-fury-mother-of-twins said. "People are cruel like that sometimes. That's why she's happier with dragons."

She glanced at Hiccup. He was suddenly wearing that "let's do something crazy" expression that she knew so well, both on his human face and on his dragon face. "Kids, why don't you go visit her in the fields? I think your father wants to talk to me about something."

"Okay, Mom!" The little dragons winged away easily; several of the other young dragons followed them.

Hiccup turned to Astrid with a smile. "You know me too well. I just had an idea. Guana is brave, and she seems to be pretty smart. She sure isn't happy in the body she's got, and –"

"_Whoa,_ Hiccup!" she interrupted. "I see where you're going, and it _might_ be a good idea, but are we going to just hit her with it? Just like that?"

"No, it wouldn't be right," he nodded. "We need to ask her first."

That evening, as Guana made her painful way home, the two adult Night Furies met her at ground level and invited her, by scratched runes in the dirt, to visit them in the Dragons' Nest. They carried her up on Hiccup's back so she didn't have to climb the stairs.

The discussion lasted well into the night, mostly because it took so long for the dragons to write in their sandbox. As soon as she understood what they were suggesting, her answer was an emphatic "yes." Most of the time was spent making sure she understood the implications, especially the permanence of it. They took her for a ride on Astrid's back, just to make sure.

Two days later, Toothless dropped by for his weekly visit to Berk. He was surprised to find his friends' home empty. But there was a message in their sandbox. He was still learning human runes and he didn't understand all of it, but he recognized the word "cove." That could mean only one place.

When he landed, he found Hiccup and Astrid supervising their children as they took target practice against the rocks with their fires. "It's Toothless!" Hiccup shouted. The whole family gathered to meet him, led by the young Night Furies.

"Hi, Uncle Toothless!" they cried, and rubbed noses with him. Toothless expected a quick TrueSight from Hiccup and Astrid, but they both declined contact. That was very unusual.

"What's going on?" Toothless asked, his eyes narrowing. "Are you two trying to hide something from me?"

"Oh, not much," grinned Hiccup. "We'd just like you to meet someone. Guana?"

From out of the shadows of the trees stepped a Night Fury.

A _female_ Night Fury.

A _drop-dead-gorgeous_ female Night Fury.

Toothless' mouth fell open. He stared. She gazed back.

"Hi," she said shyly in a low, liquid voice. "You must be Toothless. Hiccup has told me all about you."

Toothless gulped. He couldn't utter a word. Finally, Hiccup nudged him with a wing. "Come on, bud! Say something! Do we have to change your name to Speechless?"

Toothless finally managed to blurt out "Hi!" He glanced back at Hiccup, looking for some kind of explanation.

"Don't look at me," he grinned. "Astrid is doing _her_ part for the Night Fury population, in every way she can."

"She transformed me yesterday," Guana added. "I _love_ what I am now! Look at me! I don't hurt all the time any more! And... and I'm _beautiful!_" She stretched out her left wing and turned to admire it. "I'd much rather be a perfect Night Fury than... what I was. But I don't know much about _being_ a dragon. It was a long walk from the village to here, even though walking doesn't hurt any more. Hiccup says you're good at giving flying lessons?"

"Uhhh... yeah! Yeah, we can do that!" The implications of a single female Night Fury in the neighborhood...

"We'll leave you two," Astrid said with a wink. "We'll be at home if you want to visit." She rounded up the little dragons, and they winged away.

Hiccup prepared to follow them, but Toothless tapped him with a wingtip. He leaned over to Hiccup and whispered, "I'm still half-speechless. How can I thank you?"

"We didn't do it to be thanked," Hiccup murmured back. "We did it for the Night Furies... mostly.

"But if anyone needs to say 'thank you,' it's me. I've got a wife, two children, a nest that looks up to me, a colony of Night Furies that can grow in safety, an amazing life, peace between dragons and humans, and the best friend a guy ever had. It's _all_ because of you.

"Now, go teach that pretty lady how to glide. Give her a good dragon name, like Lady-night-fury.

"And... thank you for everything, you toothless reptile."

_THE END_

_(of the first ending)_


	25. Ending 2-a

**Lightning And Death Itself** Ending #2a

A/N What will Hiccup do – stay in the nest or return to Berk? I couldn't decide which of two endings was best for this story. So I'm posting both of them. This is the first half of ending #2.

**o**

The three Night Furies had gathered on their ledge in the nest. "Hiccup, that injured leg is really making me nervous," Astrid said. "You need to do something about it, and I _don't_ mean tomorrow."

"Believe me, I know," he replied through gritted teeth. "Toothless, how do dragons handle an injury like this?"

"If you still had your Power, you could heal yourself," Toothless answered. "That's not a criticism, just a statement of fact. If there's no Power to use, we usually get a Gronckle to take it off; they have strong jaws and they can do it quickly, with the least amount of pain. Then a Night Fury clamps down on it with teeth retracted until the bleeding stops, and then you rest until it heals."

"Would you do the clamping-down part for me?"

"You know I'd do anything for you, Hiccup."

"Then let's get this over with." He took a deep breath. "Go find me a Gronckle."

Toothless sensed something in his friend. It was the same fear-turning-to-determination that he'd felt when they flew through those rocks on their very first flight together. That seemed like so long ago. Nearly everything in their worlds had changed since then, and it was all because a thin, misunderstood boy had overcome his fear. Now he was doing it again. What would come from _this_ decision?

There was a surplus of volunteers; everyone loved New-night-fury and wanted to see him healthy. They picked Gronckle-light-tan-bites-trees, for obvious reasons. But as New-night-fury lay on his side, surrounded by friends, bracing himself for the amputation, they were interrupted. A blue Nadder came in fast and landed hard on their ledge, squawking, "Don't do it! Please don't do it!"

Astrid tried to handle her. "We have to do it. He could die if we don't."

"He isn't going to die," the Nadder said. "New-night-fury, do you recognize me?"

He looked up at her, and his eyes went wide. "Yes, I think I do! Your name is...?"

"Nadder-blue-flies-in-the-storm. You set me free from that burning ship."

"Oh, was that you?" New-night-fury was surprised. "I knew you from somewhere else. The training ring in the place with the rocks. When I was a human, I tried to fight you there. I didn't do a very good job, fortunately."

The Nadder chuckled. "I thought I recognized the way you talk! You must be the one who tickled me instead of hitting me. That was the only kindness I ever got in that awful place. That's all the more reason I want to do this." To the other dragons, she said, "Please don't bite his leg off. I want to heal him."

A few of them gasped. Toothless exclaimed, "Are you sure, sister? You might need that Power some day for yourself."

"You're a fine one to talk, Night-fury," she shot back. "I've heard about how New-night-fury used his own Power to heal your tail so you could fly again. Everyone has been telling me how wonderful he's been to us dragons, even though he's been here such a short time. I owe him my life, maybe more than once. He deserves this. Please, let me do this for him."

They all drew aside as New-night-fury struggled to his feet. Nadder-blue-flies-in-the-storm took a deep breath, then breathed out a line of Nadder-fire. She traced a circle in the air with it; the circle filled itself in, became a disc, and began to pulsate with color. The Nadder focused on it, held it steady, waited until it had reached full power, then nodded. New-night-fury closed his eyes and stepped into it.

They heard the crack of thunder, saw the Vortex flash and vanish, watched as New-night-fury collapsed onto his left side and went limp on the ledge. They waited. Finally, he stirred and opened his eyes. "Ohhh, man... I'm glad I don't have to go through _that _whenever I get a headache." He stood up on four perfect legs. The nest was filled with cheers.

"Sister, thank you," he said. "You healed my leg, and you also helped me make a very important decision."

"I'm guessing you mean where you're going to live," Night-fury suggested.

New-night-fury nodded. "Ever since I saw my dad again, part of me wants to go home to be with him. But I don't know how that would work. I'd be a dragon in a village full of humans; I'd be a freak or a pet, not a part of the community. Part of me loves it here with all of you, doing what Night Furies are supposed to do. But I hate to break Dad's heart again. I just didn't know what I should do.

"But now I know. Nadder-blue-flies-in-the-storm just did something for me that no human ever did, or ever would do. She gave up something very important to her, just for me. I'd never get that kind of love from the humans I know. _You're_ my people, and _this_ is my place. I'm staying!" Again the nest erupted in cheers. He flew around the nest, collecting wing-taps and good wishes from all the dragons.

When he returned, Small-night-fury motioned that she wanted to talk to him in private. They had to wait until all of New-night-fury's well-wishers had flown back to their own caves and ledges, though. "What about me, Hiccup? My family really wants to see me again."

"Astrid, I can't give you orders. What's right for me might not be right for you, and I know how it feels to miss your family. I have a feeling that, if you go back, you'll find you're not really a part of the village anymore. It's not just that you look different; we've changed on the inside as well as the outside. If you're asking my opinion, I think you ought to visit your family now and then, but you should live with the ones who understand you the best now." He paused. "_I_ really want you to stay, too."

"It's not just my family," she said. "It's Ruff. We were always friends, and she's the only one who's really accepted me the way I am now. She risked a lot to try and save my life the other day. I miss her."

Hiccup nodded. "I'd say you should visit her all you want. Heck, let her climb on your back and go flying with her, like Toothless and I used to do. I bet she'd _love_ that."

Astrid's eyes lit up. "Oh, would she _ever_ love that! I can see it now! And her brother would be _so_ envious!" She laughed at the thought, then became serious again. "So what happens now?"

The sound of fighting distracted them. "Oh, not _again!_" sputtered Night-Fury from the next ledge.

"When you told us we'd have to solve disputes in the nest, you didn't tell me it would be this often!" New-night-fury complained.

"It never used to be like this," Night-fury answered. "I see them – they're up in the cone. Same plan as before, except we're coming up from beneath them."

"Same plan, here we go," Small-night-fury agreed. The three of them took flight in a wedge formation, with Toothless in front. He waited until he was very close to the pair of fighting dragons, then launched a partial-strength firebolt that caught both of them under their chins. It wasn't enough to do damage to dragons, but it startled them and hurled them apart by a few feet. Hiccup and Astrid charged in and each head-butted one of the combatants, forcibly separating them. The Nadder tried to hit back at Astrid, but she kicked him in the belly and tail-whipped his face, which seemed to knock the fight out of him.

Toothless flew back and angrily hovered between them. "Break it up, you two! You're _dragons,_ not a couple of human savages, remember? Now, what was _this_ fight about?"

The Nadder and the Gronckle both looked blank. "I... I don't know," the Nadder stammered. "I was just flying in as he was flying out, and something about the way he looked at me made me mad, so I attacked him."

"I just glanced at him," the Gronckle replied. "I didn't mean anything by it. I was thinking about fish, not fighting."

"Well... try to stay out of each other's way for a few hours, okay?" Night-fury snapped. The two dragons nodded and went their separate ways.

"That's the second senseless fight today," Small-night-fury commented as they returned to their ledge. "Two yesterday, one the day before... Whatever is causing it, it's getting worse."

"I've never seen or heard of _anything_ like this." Night-fury shook his head. "We used to have such a peaceful nest! What's happening to us?"

"I have an idea, but it's a longshot," New-night-fury began. "Toothless, what's the longest time a nest of dragons has ever been completely at peace?"

"I've _never_ heard of a nest being at peace," his friend answered. "What we've got here is something totally new."

"That's what I thought," Hiccup continued. "I wonder if dragons have been at war with the rest of the world for so long that we've bred an instinct for violence into ourselves? Only the ones who are good at fighting survive, so they pass on that fighting instinct to their children, and now we're a race of fighters. It's like we _have_ to fight somebody; if we know we don't have any external enemies, then we start turning on ourselves."

"That makes sense," Astrid nodded, "but if it's true, it puts us in a really bad position. What are we going to do? Start another war with people? Find a brand-new enemy to fight? Or just tear each other to pieces, two at a time?"

Hiccup shook his head. "Whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be affecting the three of us... right?" The other two nodded. "So it's up to us to come up with something. Sooner would be better than later." They all agreed, but no one had any ideas.

"While we're thinking," Astrid suggested, "would anybody mind if I flew down to Berk to visit Ruff?"

"Not a problem," Toothless said, "but don't be gone too long. If more of these fights start, we'll need you here to help break them up."

"Now that I'm back to normal, I can help more," Hiccup added, "but I definitely feel better when you're around."

"I'll be back in an hour or two," she nodded, and took off.

Her flight back to Berk was uneventful. She found Ruffnut in her back yard, bringing in the dry laundry, and grumbling about being stuck with the girl chores. Astrid landed lightly, which startled the girl for a moment.

"Oh! Hi, Astrid. I'm not used to dragons dropping in on me like that. I never had a friend who could fly before."

WANT TO FLY WITH ME?

Ruff's mouth fell open, and hung open for a count of five.

At last she spoke. "I have to finish this laundry first." She set a Viking record for bringing in the rest of the clothes, then turned and stopped. "Uhhh... what do I do?"

Astrid cocked her foreleg into a step and glanced back at it. Ruff cautiously stepped onto her leg and pulled herself onto the broad black back.

HANG ON

"Okay, I'm hanging," Ruff said, a bit nervously. She didn't have much to hang onto, so Astrid took off by running and flapping, instead of springing into the air like she preferred. Ruffnut nearly fell off a couple of times; Astrid had to twist herself in mid-air to keep her friend safely on her back.

Then they leveled off, about three-quarters of a mile up. Ruff glanced down. "Oh, wow. Oh... wow!" For the next fifteen minutes, all she could say was variations on that theme. It wasn't a very exciting dialog, but then, Astrid couldn't say anything in return anyway. She wondered if Hiccup had been rendered speechless the first time he'd ridden Toothless. She flew easily, letting her friend enjoy the view as the sun began to set.

That view was certainly spectacular. Good old Berk! Astrid had looked down on the village as her home, as a place to attack, and as a place to possibly come home to. Now she looked down on it as a place she would visit, but she could never call it 'home' again. It was a bit sad, but Hiccup was right – she'd never find a place there.

Suddenly she felt Ruff tense up. "Astrid, look to the south! What's that?" She turned away from Berk in the direction her friend was pointing. Dotting the sea in the distance were dozens and dozens of longships, the largest fleet she'd ever seen.

"We're not expecting any visitors or traders," Ruff said nervously. "I think Stoick needs to know about this." Astrid nodded and banked away toward Berk, descending steadily but quickly.

They found Stoick near the forge, and Ruffnut described what she'd seen. The chief turned to the dragon.

"Is that what you saw?" Astrid nodded vigorously.

"It could only be the Berserkers," Stoick decided. "Either Oswald the Agreeable isn't so agreeable any more, or he's been replaced by someone else." He cupped his hands to his mouth and bellowed to the entire town. "Sound the alarm! Man the catapults! Everyone, prepare to defend the village!"

"We can't stand up against an army that big!" Gobber exclaimed.

"We aren't going to surrender," the chief growled back. "We'll probably be in Valhalla before the sun rises, but we'll take a few of them with us!" They rushed to prepare the town for its final defense. Astrid was ignored in the confusion.

Every able-bodied citizen took up weapons and shield. They ringed the cliffs; no invader would be able to just walk into town. Parts of the ramps were taken up, so the Berserkers couldn't dock in the harbor and run up to the main level. Everyone was silent. They couldn't see the approaching ships in the darkness, but they had to be getting close. The men and women in the catapults strained their eyes to find a target. They all knew they were completely outnumbered, and everyone in town was destined for either the Berserker slave markets or the grave.

The four teens were grouped together as a reserve, with orders to run to the sound of the fighting. They were as silent as the adults at first, but that couldn't last.

"Our first battle!" Tuffnut boasted.

"Probably our last," Fishlegs nodded fearfully.

"I can't wait until they get here!" Snotlout said. "The first Berserker I see, is a _dead_ Berserker!"

"It's the second one that worries me," Ruffnut added. "I wish Astrid was here."

"Yeah, her and that axe... she'd take down a few of them," her brother nodded.

"I was thinking of Astrid the dragon," Ruff answered. "Can you imagine if we had a Night Fury on our side? That would be –"

"Look!" Fishlegs interrupted, and pointed out to sea. "Did you see that?" They looked. Roughly half a mile away – it was hard to tell distances over water at night – something had just burst into flames.

As they watched, a series of white sparks flashed, and more fires broke out on the sea. Shafts of blinding white light ignited additional conflagrations, punctuated by a few squirts of flowing fire and one or two intense explosions.

"What... is... going... on?" Tuff asked. He didn't like things he didn't understand. That didn't leave much.

Snotlout scratched his head and stared. "It almost looks like when the dragons used to –"

"It _is_ the dragons!" Fishlegs exclaimed. "It _has_ to be! They're fighting for us!"

"We _do_ have a Night Fury on our side!" shouted Ruff excitedly. "She flew home and got help! Go, Astrid! Girl power, woo-hoo!"

All around them, the nervous silence broke into a low buzz as the other Vikings realized what was happening. They might live to see the sun rise after all. But could they admit that they were thankful to _dragons?_ The sheer number of fires springing up on the water was sobering.

"Those white streaks have to be from Deadly Nadders," Fishlegs decided. "The little sparks are from Gronckles, and –"

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Snotlout interrupted. "We don't _care_ about that! All we care about is that they're burning up the whole Berserker fleet."

"I'd sure hate to be a Berserker right now," Fishlegs said quietly.

"Better them than us!" Snotlout exclaimed, and the others had to agree.

After a few minutes, the sparks and streaks died out, leaving only dozens of bonfires floating on the sea. Eventually, those fires also died out, one by one, leaving Berk in the darkness of the new moon. Everyone stayed in their positions, just in case some invaders made it to their shores.

The night was long, dark, and silent. But somehow, somewhere in the darkness, fear gave way to hope.


	26. Ending 2-b

**Lightning And Death Itself** Ending #2b

A/N What will Hiccup do – stay in the nest or return to Berk? I couldn't decide which of two endings was best for this story. So I'm posting both of them. This is the second half of ending #2.

**o**

The sun finally rose on a scene of carnage. From the shoreline to a mile out, the sea was littered with burnt pieces of ships, floating sails and oars, and uncounted Berserkers who didn't live to see the sunrise. Over a hundred dragons were circling overhead. Every few seconds, a dragon would swoop toward the water and pluck something out. Stoick quickly realized they were rescuing the few survivors from the enemy fleet.

After several minutes went by and no more survivors were found, the dragons flew easily toward land. Each of them deposited its human cargo just behind the line of Vikings, where one or more warriors would sieze him and hustle him off. The Berserkers put up no resistance – they were tired, wet, cold, burned, stunned, demoralized, and cold some more. Once a dragon let go of its prisoner, it flapped up to the heights that overlooked the village and perched there. Berk was starting to look like a dragon's nest.

At last, the three black dragons landed near Stoick. The other Vikings gave them plenty of room, even though they'd proven themselves to be peaceful already.

Stoick wasn't sure what the protocol was for greeting a flock of friendly dragons, so he decided to treat them as a friendly tribe. "Good morning, Hiccup, Astrid, Toothless. You and your dragons did some very good work for us last night. You saved our village. We thank you."

The three Night Furies nodded politely. Then his son, the Hiccup-dragon, stepped forward.

WE WISH TO PROPOSE A DEAL.  
YOU HAVE POWERFUL ENEMIES.  
DRAGONS NEED ENEMIES OR  
WE FIGHT EACH OTHER.  
WILL YOU ACCEPT AN ALLIANCE?

Stoick read the runes twice to make sure he understood. Then he spoke in a low, tired voice.

"Hiccup... just once... I wish you and I could get together without you turning my world upside down. An alliance between Berk and the _dragons' nest?_ What would our fathers say?"

THE QUESTION IS,  
WHAT WILL MY FATHER SAY?

Stoick looked to Gobber. He _really_ needed some wise advice right about now.

"We know what th' dragons can do to people they dinna like. I'd feel good, knowing they were on our side, Stoick. What are th' terms of this alliance?"

It was Astrid's turn to write on the rocks.

WE WILL LEAVE ONE DRAGON HERE.  
IF YOU ARE ATTACKED, TELL THAT DRAGON.  
IT WILL FLY TO GET HELP.

"That's it?" Gobber asked. "What do _we_ do for _ye?_"

YOU GIVE US AN OUTLET  
FOR OUR AGGRESSIONS.  
WE NEED THAT

"It seems reasonable," Stoick nodded. "I'll have to bring it before the council, but I think they'll accept it, and we'll make out a written agreement. That one dragon you leave – would it be one of you?"

NO, WE'RE NEEDED IN THE NEST.  
PROBABLY A DEADLY NADDER.

"You're needed in the nest," Stoick repeated sadly. "Does that mean you're not going to...?"

Hiccup took over again.

WE HAVE TO GET OUR FLOCK HOME.  
WE'LL BE BACK TO DISCUSS THIS.

Stoick nodded slowly. The Night Furies rose into the air, roared and growled for a few seconds, and led all the dragons out to sea, except one Nadder who would serve as Berk's first watch-dragon.

That Nadder would be replaced by a different dragon twice a day, so no one would have to spend too much time away from the nest. It didn't take long for a new tradition to spring up in Berk – throwing a fish to the watch-dragon for good luck. Once that happened, there was never a shortage of volunteers in the nest to serve as watch-dragons.

Back in that nest, the atmosphere was relaxed, even jubilant. There were no more fights between dragons. Just knowing that they might have enemies to fight was enough.

"Dragons and humans are actually _dependent_ on each other now!" Toothless mock-complained. "Hiccup, I could almost regret turning you into a Night Fury. By the time you're done changing everything in sight, there won't be anything left of the world I've always lived in."

"Don't hang _all_ the blame on my tail!" Hiccup replied with a toothy grin. "It was Astrid's idea for us to help defend Berk. All I did was point out how it would be good for us as well as them."

"Point it out?" Astrid sputtered. "You yelled, 'Who wants to attack something?' so loud, the _whole nest_ could hear you!"

"And they all _wanted_ to attack something, which means it was a good idea," Hiccup added. "Now Berk has an air force, our nest has a safety valve, and everybody's happy."

"Everybody except our parents, I think," Astrid said with a touch of sadness.

"Oh, yeah. That," Hiccup nodded. "Toothless, can you mind the nest for the rest of the day? Astrid and I need to go back to Berk for a while. We have to say our goodbyes."

"For what it's worth, I think you chose wisely," Toothless nodded. "It took all three of us to solve this crisis. I doubt I could have done it alone. This nest needs all the Night Furies it can get." He took a deep breath and let it out. "To be honest, so do I." He watched them as they flapped up the cone and out of the nest.

Hiccup sought out Gobber first, and explained his decision (and his suddenly-healed leg) by scratching his runes in the dirt. Gobber nodded.

"Ye weren't the best apprentice I ever had, but ye tried hard. Ye make a fine dragon, though, an' no mistake about that. Drop by an' say hello now and then, will ye?" His voice dropped to a near-whisper. "An' take good care o' that young lassie, too! She's a fine one!" He made a clucking noise and winked.

As he left the smithy, he heard Ruffnut's unmistakeable voice from overhead. Astrid had her up in the air again, and judging by the way she was whooping and waving, she was having the time of her life. No surprise there.

People all over town were stopping to watch them whipping back and forth across the sky. He noticed the other three teens taking an unscheduled break from their chores, gazing up at Ruffnut with palpable envy. Fishlegs murmured, "I would _so_ love to do that." Hiccup walked up to him, nudged him with his head, and glanced at his own back with a warble.

"Me? Go riding on you?" Fishlegs fumbled for words. "That's kind of awkward. I mean, you're really Hiccup, and riding on Hiccup is... is that okay?" Hiccup repeated the gesture, showing some teeth this time. "Okay, okay! Never make a dragon mad, that's what I say." He climbed onto Hiccup's back.

"Hey, how come he gets a ride?" Snotlout demanded. Hiccup scratched in the dirt.

HE ASKED FIRST

Then he sprang into the air. Fishlegs had a moment of terror and almost fell off, but then he leaned forward and found his balance. "Oh, yeah!" he shouted. "I think I just took a level in 'awesome'!" _So this is how Toothless felt when I was riding him,_ Hiccup thought. _It's kind of fun._ His passenger was really getting into it as he caught up with Astrid.

"I'm the queen of the world!" Ruff was shouting, raising her fists over her head.

"And I'm the king!" Fishlegs called, with a matching gesture. Ruff looked startled, even irritated; she wasn't expecting company in the air. When she saw who it was, her irritation turned to a more speculative look. _Hmmm, _Hiccup thought._ Could those two be...? Nahh!_

Of course, the other two teens had to have their turn when the first two rides were done. As Hiccup came in for a landing with Snotlout, his passenger leaned forward. "Don't tell anybody I said this, cousin, but you turned out okay!" They all asked the dragons to visit now and then, which they agreed to do. Hiccup made a mental note to retrieve Toothless' saddle from the cove; he or Astrid might well be wearing it themselves soon. Oh, the irony...

"Oh, and one more thing, Hiccup?" Snotlout said. "I've decided to be nice and let you have Astrid as your girl. I'm not going to chase her any more." Hiccup grunted and nodded politely.

Then it was time for Astrid to explain things to her parents. Hiccup went to find his father. This wasn't going to be fun.

"I saw this coming," Stoick said sadly. "I've spoken to the Hoffersons, and they're agreed that you and their daughter are a couple, in whatever way you dragons do those things. There won't be any outraged kinfolk tracking you down to avenge her honor. That's about all I can do for you. Is there nothing I can do to change your mind?"

DAD, I LOVE YOU, BUT THIS CAN  
NEVER BE MY HOME AGAIN.  
I'VE CHANGED TOO MUCH

"When I lost your mother, I thought my world ended. Then when you disappeared, I thought it really ended. Then I got you back, with some changes, and now you're leaving again?"

I CAN VISIT.  
I'LL BE HERE FOR SNOGGLETOG

"Do you really have to go?"

NO ONE HERE MISSES ME EXCEPT YOU.  
WITH THE DRAGONS, I FIT IN.  
THEY DEPEND ON ME

Stoick shook his head. "If the others are depending on you, I suppose you have to do what you have to do. You're a chief now, I suppose. You have responsibilities, and I know how that is." He sadly rested his hand on his son's head, no longer appalled at how the scales felt. "I had dreams of you taking my place some day. But you've found your own place, doing it your own way like you always did. I guess you've become a man, in a dragony sort of a way.

"I'm proud of you, son."

Night Furies aren't supposed to cry.

But if they have to blink back a few tears now and then, no one holds it against them.

_THE END  
(of the second ending)_

_(which means it really is the end)_


	27. Night Fury Populations

**Lightning and Death Itself** Population Estimate

Just for fun, let's consider what will happen to the Night Fury population over the next few years, using Ending #1 as a starting point.

We'll make the following assumptions:

=Hiccup and Astrid are the first mating pair.  
=Toothless and Guana immediately form the second mating pair.  
=Guana will transform a human into a Night Fury very soon. That new Night Fury will also transform a human of the opposite sex, to make a third mating pair.  
=Night Furies reach physical maturity at age 3.  
=Once they pair off, they stay paired off for life.  
=When a Night Fury reaches the age of 2, he/she will search for a suitable human of the opposite sex who will make a good Night Fury, and transform him/her near the end of that second year. Thus, as soon as a Night Fury reaches maturity, his/her partner will be there and ready to mate.  
=Nobody dies of accidents, sickness, or violence.  
=Just to keep it simple, we'll say Astrid will not lay any more twins, and none of her children will inherit that tendency from her. We'll assume one egg per couple per year.  
=We won't consider Night Furies who might be living elsewhere; we'll look only at the ones who live in or near Berk.

Given these assumptions, how fast will our friendly dragons repopulate their race?

When the story starts, there is only Toothless. The Night Fury population is 1. But Toothless pulls the transformation of the century, and gets the ball rolling.

At the end of year 1, we have Hiccup and Astrid and their hatchling twins, Toothless and Guana, and the dragon Guana transforms, along with that dragon's newly-transformed mate. That gives us six adults and two hatchlings, for a Night Fury population of 8.

At the end of year 2, the hatchling twins are now yearlings. Three new hatchlings from the three adult pairs take their places. The number of adults is unchanged. Our Night Fury population is up to 11.

In year 3, we've got three new hatchlings, three yearlings (last year's hatchlings), the twins are now two years old, they've both transformed their future mates, and we still have our original six adults. Now we've got 16 Night Furies. Looking good so far!

In year 4, the three hatchlings from Year 2 are now two and transform their future mates, and the twins and their mates begin laying eggs themselves. Our population jumps to 23.

I won't bore you with all the math from here on, but let's skip ahead to year 10. At that point, if I've figured it right, we'll have 36 newly-hatched babies, 25 yearlings, 18 two-year-olds and 18 newly-transformed mates-to-be, and 104 adults, for a total of 183 Night Furies. It looks like the race is being repopulated pretty well, wouldn't you agree?

As more time passes, the numbers will mount up even faster. If Astrid or any of her children lay twins at any point, they'll climb faster yet. For instance, one set of twins in Year 4 jumps the year-10 population from 183 to 189.

Every single one of them can trace his/her existence back to Toothless. Look what you've started, you useless reptile!


	28. Deleted Scene 1

**Lightning and Death Itself** Deleted Scene 01

A/N _I've gotten multiple requests to write sequels, epilogs, etc., for this story. At this time, I don't have any ideas to add; the book is pretty well closed. But in the interest of keeping my readers happy, I can offer you something a little different: deleted scenes._

_Like the deleted scenes that you get when you buy a movie on DVD, these are chunks of dialog and action that I considered writing, but ultimately left out or glossed over because I thought they distracted from the flow of the story. But they have merit, and since you want to read more from this story, I'll write them out and let you enjoy them. They will appear in no particular order._

_This scene takes place immediately after the end of Chapter 21._

**o**

"…Astrid?" he sobbed, nearly choking on his tears. Gunnarr couldn't question that it was her, even though his eyes and his common sense told him otherwise. It was as though she had come back badly mauled by some wild animal, to the point that he almost couldn't recognize her, but still knew it was her.

"How did this… what happened to you?"

WRITING IS HARD FOR ME NOW  
CAN WE WAIT UNTIL MOM IS READY?

Gunnarr glanced at his wife. Edda was showing signs of regaining consciousness. She shook her head slowly and opened her eyes. "Gunnarr? What am I doing down here?"

He took her hands in his. "You fainted, dear. I guess your nerves couldn't handle it."

She started to say, "Couldn't handle what?" and then she saw the black dragon standing within touching distance of her husband. She gasped and tried to scramble away, but the feet of the crowd behind her kept her from getting very far.

"It's okay, Edda! It's okay!" he tried to reassure her.

"But that's a… that's a…" she stammered in terror.

He knelt and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Yes, I know what it is. I also know _who_ it is."

She slowly remembered what had happened just before she fainted. The chief had been explaining how the one of the two Night Furies was really his son, and the other one had approached her and called her… Mama.

She shook her head hard. "Don't let me faint again! I'm not a fainter!" She tried to stand up, but was still too shaky; Gunnarr helped her to her feet. He felt like the crowds around them were pressing in on him, and they also were intruding on what was likely to be a very intense family discussion.

"Could you people please back away a few steps?" he called. Everyone's attention was on the Night Fury. No one moved.

"Please! We need to… please, let us out of here!" Still no one moved.

The black dragon took a half-step forward and snarled viciously. _Now_ they moved! Within moments, Gunnarr and Edda were the only people within a hundred feet of the dragon, which quickly lowered its head and made a soft warbling sound. Edda had tried to run with the others, but her husband held her back.

"Edda… it's her!" He pointed at the runes she'd scratched on the rocks. "It doesn't make sense, but it's really her!"

"It can't be," Edda sobbed. "That's not my Astrid!"

IT'S ME

"How... how could you be?" she sputtered. "How could my little girl turn into a dragon?"

ANOTHER DRAGON TRANSFORMED ME  
IT WAS MAGIC

"Well, I hope you killed him for doing that to you!"

THIS IS VERY COMPLICATED  
HIS REASONS WERE GOOD  
I DON'T HATE HIM

"Astrid, honey," her father said softly, "these rocks are going to wear out your... claws. Let's go home, where you can write in the dirt, and we'll all be more comfortable." The Night Fury nodded, and they passed through the gap in the crowd that magically opened as they approached. Everyone stared at them, from a healthy distance, until they were out of sight.

As they drew near the Hofferson home, the door flew open and Astrid's two younger brothers burst out... and stopped dead in their tracks. Eyes as wide as saucers, mouths hanging wide open, they just stared at the creature that was walking next to their parents. The dragon's eyes lit up at the sight of them.

VARINN, HOW HAVE YOU BEEN?  
RANGI, YOU LITTLE TROLL

Both boys stared at the runes the dragon had just scratched in the dirt. Varinn, the twelve-year-old, turned to his father. "How does it know our names?"

Nine-year-old Rangi exclaimed, "That's what Astrid calls me!"

I KNOW

"How do you know?" The boy was directly addressing the dragon, as though he'd been talking to Night Furies all his life.

I'M ASTRID  
I GOT TURNED INTO A DRAGON  
BUT I'M STILL YOUR SISTER

He stared. "The chief says dragons always lie."

THE CHIEF'S SON IS A DRAGON, TOO  
AND WE ALMOST NEVER TELL LIES

"Is that true?" the boy demanded of his parents. They nodded.

"Is it... safe?" Varinn quavered. They nodded again, and so did the dragon.

"I thought dragons were bad," Rangi said quietly. His big brother very hesitantly walked up to Astrid, stretched out his hand, and patted her on the nose. She made a burbling sound that scared Varinn at first, but he realized that the huge beast was being friendly, and patted her on the nose some more. Rangi also started away, but didn't want to look scared in front of his brother, so he forced himself to join Varinn and pat the dragon's jaw.

"Now do you believe it's her?" Gunnarr asked his wife.

"This is just... impossible!" she burst out. "My brain has to believe it, but my heart can't accept it. That's _not_ the little girl I gave birth to, and nursed, and taught how to walk and talk and dress herself."

Gunnarr walked around to where his sons were standing. "Boys, I need you to step aside so she can write. Astrid... please, tell us what happened to you."

LONG STORY

"We have to know." The dragon nodded and began to write in the dirt.

HICCUP TAMED A NIGHT FURY  
HE TOOK ME FOR A RIDE ON ITS BACK  
IT TURNED BOTH OF US INTO DRAGONS  
IT CAN'T BE UNDONE  
ACCEPTING THE CHANGE WAS HARD  
BUT I'M TOTALLY A DRAGON NOW  
I LIKE WHAT I AM

Gunnarr sadly put an arm around his wife's shoulders. "I've been totally fixed on how hard this is for the two of us to accept," he sighed. "I've barely given a thought to how hard it must have been for her." He faced Astrid. "Are you sure you're okay like this?"

ACCEPTING IT WAS THE HARDEST  
THING I'VE EVER DONE  
I'VE FULLY ADJUSTED TO IT  
I LOVE FLYING

"I can imagine," her father nodded.

In moments of great stress, it was easy for Edda to fall back on old motherhood habits. "Can we... get you something to eat?" she asked nervously.

FISH WOULD BE GREAT

"I think we've got some in the cellar. Come on in and let's see what I can find." Edda led the way toward the house, followed by her sons, then Astrid, then Gunnarr.

The procession stopped abruptly at the threshold. The dragon was too big to fit through the door.

"Huh," Gunnarr said with a shake of his head. "Your big cousin Birna has trouble getting through doors sometimes, but I never imagined _you'd_ have that problem."

Astrid laughed. It didn't sound like Astrid's girlish laugh at all; it was a baritone chuckle from a mouth that could not form consonants. Yet there was no question she was laughing.

Somehow, that did it.

Somehow, that simple, almost-human reaction to a terrible family joke finally touched Edda Hofferson's heart with the truth.

She took a step toward the Night Fury, then rushed at her, threw her arms around the thick black neck, and clung to her, sobbing, "My daughter... oh, my poor daughter..." The dragon's eyes got a little bit moist as well. The boys turned away in embarrassment. Gunnarr just rested one hand on his wife's shoulder until she regained her composure.

"Astrid, please... tell us why you ran away."

VIKINGS KILL DRAGONS

"She has a point," her father nodded. "What about you and the chief's boy, Hiccup? You two ran away together, right? Uhhh... is there anything between the two of you that I ought to know about?"

WE ARE A COUPLE

Edda burst into tears at that. "No, not that! You're supposed to get married first!"

WE CAN'T SAY VOWS  
WE CAN'T WEAR RINGS  
DRAGONS DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY

"I don't think your mother's bridal crown would look good on you," Gunnarr nodded, "but we both longed for the day when you'd marry a nice boy."

I DID, SORT OF

"Astrid... are you going to come home now?" Edda asked through her tears. The dragon paused.

DO I HAVE TO ANSWER THAT NOW?

"That sounds like a 'no'," her father thought out loud.

I'M JUST NOT SURE  
SO MUCH HAS CHANGED  
BESIDES, THE OTHER DRAGONS NEED ME

"What do they need you for?" Varinn wondered.

NIGHT FURIES RULE THE NEST  
I'M LIKE A CHIEF NOW,  
WITH HICCUP AND TOOTHLESS

"Who's Toothless?" Edda asked.

THE OTHER DRAGON

"This other dragon doesn't have any teeth?" Varinn cut in.

She showed them how her teeth retracted and popped out. "Cool!" Rangi exclaimed. "Do that again!"

"So my runaway daughter... is a dragon now... and she's kind of married now... and she's kind of a chief now..." Gunnarr shook his head. "Got any more impossible surprises for me to adjust to today?"

I CAN'T THINK OF ANY

"Hey, Astrid," Rangi asked, pulling on her wing. "If that other dragon could take you for a ride, then could _you_ take _me_ for a ride?"

MAYBE SOMEDAY,  
BUT NOT TODAY,  
YOU LITTLE TROLL

"Hey!" he shouted. "I'm not a troll!"

"Don't pull her wing like that, dear," Edda admonished him.

"So... what are you going to do next?" Gunnarr asked softly.

I HAVE TO HELP HICCUP  
GET BACK TO THE NEST  
HIS LEG IS HURT; HE NEEDS HELP

Edda nodded. "I'm pleased by that, Astrid. Not that he's hurt, but that you want to help him. You never used to be the nurturing type."

LIKE I SAID,  
A LOT HAS CHANGED

"Will you at least come visit now and then?" her father almost pleaded. She nodded vigorously.

AS SOON AS WE DECIDE, YOU'LL  
BE AMONG THE FIRST TO KNOW.  
NO MATTER WHAT, I'LL VISIT

"We?" Edda asked.

"Her and Hiccup," Gunnarr said.

Edda shook her head. "This is going to be so hard to get used to! Is there anything that _hasn't_ changed?"

I STILL LOVE YOU  
I MISSED YOU ALL A LOT

Gunnarr moved to hug his daughter's neck, but Edda got there first. "I'll find a way to adjust, somehow," she sobbed. "All that really matters is that you came home! Oh, praise every god we know of, and few that we've forgotten about! My baby came home! _You came home!_"

Gunnarr realized that his daughter's neck was probably big enough for two people to hug at once. He tried to give her one of his big-daddy bear hugs; he realized that those worked better when he was bigger than her. "We both tried to guess why you left. I admit, this is just about the _only_ reason we didn't think of. It's a hard thing... I'm sure it's hard for you too... but _please_ come back home, and if you can't, then please visit as much as you can!

"You look a little different, but... somehow, you're still our daughter."

ONE WAY OR ANOTHER,  
I'LL BE BACK  
I PROMISE

Then she leaped into the air and glided back to the cliffs to find Hiccup. The rest of the family stood side by side and watched her fly away.

"Wow," intoned Rangi.

"I've got a Night Fury for a sister," Varinn said softly.

"She came home," Edda barely whispered.

Gunnarr's only words were, "We'll have to make a wider door."


	29. Deleted Scene 2

**Lightning and Death Itself** Deleted Scene 02

A/N _I've gotten multiple requests to write sequels, epilogs, etc., for this story. At this time, I don't have any ideas to add; the book is pretty well closed. But in the interest of keeping my readers happy, I can offer you something a little different: deleted scenes._

_Like the deleted scenes from a movie or TV show, these are chunks of dialog and action that I considered writing, but ultimately left out or glossed over because I thought they distracted from the flow of the story. But they have merit, and since you want to read more from this story, I'll write them out and let you enjoy them. They will appear in no particular order._

_This scene takes place immediately after the end of Chapter 9._

**o**

"Okay, guys, _now_ what do we do?"

Ruff's question fell on three sets of completely stunned ears. They had just come (they thought) within a hairsbreadth of being attacked by two Night Furies, only for the dragons to claim that they were actually two of their friends, Astrid and Hiccup, who had disappeared days ago, and had somehow turned into dragons since then. The Night Furies hadn't tried to attack at all; instead, they scratched runes on the rocks, trying to communicate with the teens. Ruff was completely convinced that it was really them; the others weren't so sure. It was such a bizarre, unexpected encounter, they still weren't even sure it had really happened. The best proof that it wasn't a dream was the rows of runes that the dragons had made.

One set, in particular, demanded a response on their part.

TELL OUR PARENTS WE ARE OKAY  
TELL THEM WE RAN AWAY  
WE WON'T BE COMING BACK

"Do you want to take a message like that to the chief?" Snotlout quavered; he'd been badly shaken by the encounter. "_I_ sure don't!"

"Somebody has to do it," Fishlegs countered. "He hasn't been himself since Hiccup vanished. All he does is send out searching parties that don't find anybody."

"Do you think _this_ is going to make anything better?" Tuff challenged him.

"Well, somebody has to tell the Hoffersons, that's for sure," Ruff said. "They're both total wrecks. I'll do it, if somebody comes with me." She looked at each of them in turn. They suddenly realized that whoever didn't go with her would wind up taking the message to Stoick instead. They all volunteered at once.

"I'll take my brother," she decided. "Snotlout, you're in Stoick's family, and Legs was… sort of a friend to Hiccup, so you talk to the chief."

"Now?" Lout asked, hoping the answer was "no."

"It's too dark for us to go back to town now," Fishlegs said. "We ought to wait until the morning." It was decided; they would wait.

None of them got much sleep that night. Their camping trip had taken a turn for the weird.

The next morning, they packed up their gear without saying much to each other. They all reread the dragons' runes several times, knowing that this might be their last contact with their friends. One or two storms would wash the runes away, and they would be gone forever.

The trip back to town was also mostly silent. Ruffnut and Tuffnut didn't even bother fighting with each other over who would carry what. They returned to their homes, greeted their families without much joy, and met again in the middle of town.

"Don't you guys _dare_ wimp out on this," Ruff warned them. She and her brother turned and headed for the Hofferson home. Snotlout and Fishlegs looked up the hill toward the chief's house.

"You know," Lout said thoughtfully, "if the chief is in a bad mood, then it wouldn't be wimping out if we don't tell him. It would be the smart thing to do."

"I really don't think that's what Ruffnut had in mind," Legs objected.

"Who put her in charge?" Lout demanded.

"Well, Astrid used to be in charge, kind of, and Ruff is the only one who's making decisions, so I guess she put herself in charge."

"Huh!" Snotlout snorted. "_I_ didn't vote for her, so she can't order me around! I've got some important stuff to do anyway, so you can do whatever you want." He trotted back toward his home, leaving Fishlegs alone and full of dread. He _couldn't_ do this by himself!

Then his face lit up as he realized he might not have to. He ambled toward a place where some strong moral support might be found.

Edda Hofferson heard a knock at the door. She rushed to open it, hoping it might be Astrid, home at last.

"Oh, hello, Ruff, Tuff," she said, trying to mask her disappointment. "What can I do for you?"

"Can we come inside, Mrs. H?" Ruffnut asked. "There's something we need to tell you."

Somehow she knew it had something to do with her missing daughter. She invited them in, and they all sat around the fire pit.

"We got a message from Astrid last night," Ruff began, and got no further before Mrs. Hofferson grabbed both her hands tightly.

"Where is she? Is she all right? Is she hurt? Where has she been? Where is she now?"

"She gave us a message," Ruff said again, trying to fight back tears. "She said to tell you she's okay, and… and…" She broke down, unable to continue.

"She says she ran away and she isn't coming back," Tuff finished. He was embarrassed by his sister's emotional display, and couldn't wait for this uncomfortable meeting to end.

Mrs. Hofferson sat stone-still, unable to process what she'd just heard.

"Why?" she finally managed to whisper.

"That was the whole message," Ruff choked out.

"But why would she run away? She was so happy! She didn't have a problem in the world, except she was mad about Hiccup beating her in… did this have something to do with Hiccup?"

Tuff started to answer, but Ruff cut him off. "That was the whole message."

"You're keeping something from me," Mrs. Hofferson said suspiciously. "I know my daughter. She would have said a lot more than that! Tell me! I don't care how hard it is for me to accept – I have to know! _Tell me!_"

This time, it was Tuffnut who cut his sister off. He suspected she was about to reveal the truth, and somehow he knew that wasn't a good idea. "Mrs. H, we're both really shook up by this. She just appeared, gave us the message, and vanished in the night. She and my sister were friends; Ruff is really taking this hard. I think I need to take her home."

_You think she's taking this hard?_ Edda thought. Wordlessly, she rose and opened the door for them. She _knew_ they were holding out on her. She would learn their secret if it took her a year. Gods willing, Astrid would be back long before then.

How was she going to break this to her husband when he came home?

The twins waited until they were far from the house before they dared to speak to each other. "You almost spilled the beans, didn't you?" Tuff demanded.

"I owe you one," she nodded.

"Do you _really_ think that dragon was Astrid?" he demanded.

"Yes," she said. "It doesn't make any sense, but I just _know_ it's her." She wiped her nose on her sleeve. "I hope she's going to be all right."

Stoick was pacing the floor when he heard the knock on the door. He opened it hesitantly… and found a very nervous Fishlegs Ingerman on his doorstep, with Gobber right behind him.

"This young man has somethin' he's wantin' to tell ye," the smith said by way of introduction.

"All right," the chief rumbled. "Well?" Fishlegs was close to panic.

"I'm thinkin' ye might want to invite us in for a few minutes," Gobber suggested.

"Oh! Oh, yes, of course," Stoick replied, and let them into the house. The two guests sat in the closest chairs they could find. Stoick had no idea where this was going.

"What's on your mind, young man?"

"Well, sir, uhh... we teens were camping out last night, and, uhh... something happened."

"What happened?"

"Uhh... we got a message. From Hiccup."

"From _Hiccup?_" The chief was on his feet. "Where is he? Is he all right? Is he hurt? Where has he been? Where is he now?"

"Sir... I'm sorry..." Legs was trying not to cry, and failing. "He said to tell you he's okay, and... he ran away... and he isn't coming back." Gobber rested a huge hand on Fishlegs' shoulder.

Stoick sat down again, stunned. "Did... did he say why?"

"No, sir."

"What about the Hofferson girl who disappeared? Did you see her?"

"I think they're together, sir."

Stoick's face clouded over. "Why would he...? If he wanted to marry her, I would have arranged it for him! Why didn't he come to me?" He suddenly turned on Gobber. "Did I push him away somehow? Tell me the truth!"

"I don't know, Stoick. I wasn't there. I'm just here to support the boy. He was afraid o' facin' you by 'imself."

"Have you told the Hoffersons about this?"

Fishlegs nodded. "Ruffnut and Tuffnut are telling them right now."

The chief turned away from them. "Thank you. Please... please go now." As they left, they heard him almost sobbing, "My son, my son! What have I done? How can I get you back?"

"Thank you for coming with me," Fishlegs told Gobber earnestly as they walked away. "Did I do the right thing by telling him that?"

"I've heard that, for a parent whose young 'un has disappeared, the worst news is no news at all," the smith said thoughtfully. "Now 'e knows his son is alive and well. That will be some small comfort to 'im."

_I hope,_ he added mentally.


	30. Deleted Scene 3

**Lightning and Death Itself** Deleted Scene 03

A/N _I've gotten multiple requests to write sequels, epilogs, etc., for this story. At this time, I don't have any ideas to add; the book is pretty well closed. But in the interest of keeping my readers happy, I can offer you something a little different: deleted scenes._

_Like the deleted scenes from a movie or TV show, these are chunks of dialog and action that I considered writing, but ultimately left out or glossed over because I thought they distracted from the flow of the story. But they have merit, and since you want to read more from this story, I'll write them out and let you enjoy them. They will appear in no particular order._

_This scene takes place near the end of Ending 1-b._

**o**

COULD WE SPEAK WITH YOU?

Guana was not expecting this. For one thing, no one ever paid any attention to the burn-scarred shepherd girl, and most people talked to her as little as they could without being rude. For another thing, the dragons who were writing in the dirt in front of her were the town's Night Furies, their most revered and prestigious dragon citizens. Who was she, that they would even notice her?

"Yes, certainly! I haven't been overfeeding your little ones, have I?"

They laughed. It was an inhuman sound, and yet a familiar one.

NO, THIS IS ABOUT YOU

"Oh. I'm sure I haven't done anything bad to a dragon. I love dragons!"

WE KNOW  
THAT'S WHY WE WANT TO TALK TO YOU  
WILL YOU JOIN US IN OUR HOME?

She looked at the Nest. "Climbing stairs is very hard for me. I'll try."

ASTRID CAN FLY YOU UP THERE

"Thank you! But... climbing onto dragons is also very hard for me. I think. I've never tried it before."

I'LL HELP

The Hiccup-dragon used his broad snout to lift her up until she could scramble onto the Astrid-dragon's back. Astrid sprang into the air and, rather than land on the second floor of the Nest, she kept going up. Guana had a moment of panic when she realized there wasn't much for her to hold onto. But Astrid stayed level, and she noticed that Hiccup was flying just underneath them, probably so he could catch her if she fell.

When Astrid leveled off, she stretched out her wings and glided. Guana made herself look down... and gasped. "What a view!" she exclaimed. "I can see my pastures, and all the houses, and everything! This is just... just wonderful."

Hiccup flew up next to her and gave her a quizzical look, accompanied by a rising croon. She took her best guess what he meant.

"I almost said this is just like I dreamed it would be, but that would have sounded stupid."

She flew in wide-eyed silence for several minutes. At last, Astrid put a wing over and spiraled down to the Nest, landing lightly on the edge. Hiccup joined her a moment later; his landings were never as smooth as hers, and even less so now that he had only three legs to land on. He helped Guana slide off the other dragon's back, and the three of them walked over to their sand table.

It was filled with columns of numbers and scrawled notes; the Night Furies had been negotiating with the humans of Berk to get more high-quality fish for their dragonets. Hiccup wiped the sand smooth with a sweep of his tail, and Astrid wrote the first message.

WHAT DID YOU MEAN,  
JUST LIKE YOU DREAMED IT WOULD BE?

"Oh... it's silly," Guana stammered.

PLEASE

"Well... when I was little, I used to dream that I could become a dragon, and I'd fly over Berk and see everything from above. I could just spread my wings, and fly away, and... and my arms and my legs wouldn't hurt anymore." She sighed. "It was a stupid dream. I've learned to stick to reality."

REALLY?  
YOU REMEMBER THAT DREAM WELL.  
WHAT IF IT CAME TRUE?

"That's even more silly," she snapped. "I don't mean to be disrespectful, but you're kind of wasting my time with idle daydreams."

DON'T YOU RECALL HOW WE  
USED TO BE HUMANS?

"Oh. I'm sorry, I forgot about –" She was suddenly staring at them intently. "Are... are you suggesting that I could...be a...?

YOU'RE BRAVE  
YOU'RE SMART  
YOU LIKE DRAGONS  
WE THINK YOU MIGHT BE WILLING

"Yes!" she exclaimed. "If you're offering me the chance to be a dragon like you, then the answer is 'yes.' I don't know how you'd do it, but... yes!"

IT CAN BE A VERY HARD TRANSITION TO MAKE

"Yes! I'll adjust; I'll find a way."

IT IS IRREVOCABLE

"I said yes! If I could be a perfect dragon, instead of a crippled human... yes!"

WE JUST HAVE TO –

Guana reached out and grabbed Astrid's paw, stopping her from writing any more. "If you make a dragon out of me, will I still be burned?"

YOU'LL BE AS PERFECT  
AS WE CAN IMAGINE

"Then either do it, or stop tormenting me with the thought of it! Please!"

FOR A LITTLE SHEPHERD GIRL,  
YOU'RE KIND OF FEISTY

"I'm sorry, but... I feel like you're offering me all my dreams on a platter, and then you keep edging the platter away. I never had anything to hope for, so I'm not very good at handling hope now."

WE HAVE TO BE SURE.  
WE DON'T WANT TO FORCE  
YOU OR TRICK YOU

"How many different ways can I say 'I want this with all my heart' before you believe me?!" she exclaimed.

She stepped awkwardly in front of Astrid and laid both hands on the dragon's muzzle. "Look at me! Look at what I am! I'm never going to get better. I have nothing to hope for, nothing to look forward to. You're offering me a new life! A chance to be just like you!" She looked upward. "A chance to fly..." After a long pause, she looked back at Astrid. "Just do one thing for me. Take me to Pusboiler's house so I can tell him he's going to need another shepherd girl. After that... I've limped long enough. Please let me fly!"

WHAT ABOUT YOUR PARENTS?

"They both died years ago. I'm leaving no one behind."

Astrid carried her to the house of the town's biggest sheep-owner. He was surprised at the news that his shepherd was quitting her job. "What else do you think you can do to earn a living?" he demanded.

"I'm pretty sure I'll come up with something," she said demurely.

"Once I replace you, you can't get your old job back," he threatened.

"I'll chance it," she answered. She and Astrid returned to the Nest. She found that Hiccup had a message waiting for her.

THERE'S ONE MORE THING.  
THIS MIGHT BE AWKWARD.  
BECAUSE NIGHT FURIES ARE SO RARE,  
YOU'LL BE EXPECTED TO TAKE A MATE

She stared at that for a few seconds. "As I am now, that isn't even an option. I'd never even thought about it. Would I wait until your son is full-grown?"

YOU COULD, BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO.  
OUR FRIEND TOOTHLESS IS SINGLE.  
HE'S BEEN A BACHELOR FOR A LONG TIME,  
BUT HE'S A GOOD DRAGON

"I... I guess I'll have to meet him," she stammered.

YOU'LL MEET HIM.  
HE'LL GIVE YOU YOUR FLYING LESSONS.  
HE'S VERY PATIENT WITH BEGINNERS

" 'Patient' is good," she nodded. "But I confess, my own patience is running low. Can we do this thing?"

ASTRID WILL CREATE A  
COLORED DISC IN THE AIR.  
WHEN SHE NODS, STEP INTO IT.  
YOU'LL BE KNOCKED SILLY FOR  
A FEW SECONDS.  
THERE'S NO TURNING BACK.

"I'll be just like you?" she asked hopefully.

YOU WILL BE A PERFECT NIGHT FURY

"Then do it! Please! Save me out of this body, and make all my dreams come true! I couldn't be more sure about this, no matter how many times you ask me. Please, do it!"

Hiccup stepped out of the way. He'd coached Astrid in how this was done; she knew her part. She breathed out a small fireball that stopped in mid-air and stretched into a disc about seven feet across. Rainbows of color swirled across it. Guana stepped up to it and felt her hair standing on end. She looked back at Astrid, who was concentrating hard. The light and colors drew the attention of several dragons who were resting nearby. They knew what was about to happen.

Astrid nodded. Guana stepped forward. The disc vanished with a clap of thunder, and the girl blacked out. Literally. She was unconscious for the few seconds it took for her body to stretch, deform, and reform itself into a jet-black dragon.

She shook off the side effects of the transformation slowly. The first thing she saw was her own left hand, now a black, clawed paw. She flexed the claws curiously, then looked at her right paw.

"Am I really –" She stopped in surprise. New-night-fury remembered what a shock it was when he heard himself speaking like a dragon for the first time.

He nodded. "The transformation worked perfectly. Welcome to the Nest, Newest-night-fury!"

"Yes, welcome!" chorused the dragons who were watching. She stared at them.

"I can understand you! You're talking to me!" she exclaimed.

"We've all been talking to you for a long time," came a voice that was somehow familiar. It was Small-boy-night-fury, who had been resting on the roof with his sister, but who glided down when he heard the thunderclap. "Now you can understand us and talk back to us."

"Oh, my..." She was speechless. They weren't exaggerating when they said it could be a hard transition to make! She rose –

...and stopped, and lay down again, and rose again. Her eyes filled with tears.

"It doesn't hurt anymore," she sobbed.

"Do you know what this _means_ to me? It doesn't hurt anymore! My knees, my elbows, my feet... _it doesn't hurt anymore!_" She slumped to the ground and cried for joy. Night-fury-mother-of-twins lay down next to her, New-night-fury covered her with a wing, and the two little Night Furies lay right in front of her, ready to rub noses with her if she needed it.

"Even if I never learn to fly," she sniffled, "even if I never breathe fire or do anything else that dragons do, just being free of pain will be worth it all. I've _never_ been without pain. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to take a step, or brush my hair, or do anything without making it hurt worse. Now I'm feeling _nothing,_ and it's the most wonderful feeling in the world!"

"We can't imagine," New-night-fury answered. "But just wait until you _do_ fly. _That_ is the most incredible feeling in the world!"

She stretched out her wings and looked at them. She swished her tail and fanned her tail fins and looked at them. She ran her tongue across her pointy teeth and tried to retract them. Everything about herself was new, and she wanted to learn it all at once. Even walking was new to her, and it took a bit of practice to amble around the floor of the Nest without stumbling. Some of the dragons who were watching ran to tell all the others that a new Night Fury had just joined them, and she was soon inundated with new friends without having to go anywhere.

All the draconic commotion aroused some curiosity among the humans as well, and many of them came out to see what was going on. Hiccup had to fly down and write in the dirt so they could understand. The idea that poor little Guana had suddenly ceased to exist, and another sleek black dragon had taken her place, was hard for some to accept. But they all knew about Hiccup and Astrid. The town would adjust.

Guana had only one question. "When can I fly?"

"Flying takes practice, just like learning to walk," Night-fury-mother-of-twins told her. "The best advice I can give is the advice I had the hardest time following – just let your reflexes do all the work. Night-fury is a great flight instructor. He'll have you up in the air in two or three days if you listen to him."

"Then what?" she wondered.

"Once you're a strong flier, you can fly out to the nest where Night-fury lives, and meet all the other dragons," New-night-fury said. "If you decide you like Night-fury, which we hope you will, then you'll live there with him. Otherwise, you're welcome to stay here. Either way, we'll help you adjust to your new form and learn how to live as a Night Fury."

"I'm almost shaking with excitement," she replied. "Everything is going to be new!"

"Almost everything," Night-fury-mother-of-twins replied with a grin. "Night Furies lead the nest, look after the other dragons, and settle any problems that arise. You're still going to be a shepherd. Only now, your 'sheep' will be big and scaly and will breathe fire!"

Their children laughed at that mental image. She chuckled quietly. "Maybe I should go and tell Pusboiler I've found a new job already?"

"All things in time," New-night-fury said. "It's already well after midnight. In the morning, we'll help you get adjust to eating like a dragon and walking on all fours, and you'll meet the dragons who live in Berk. Tomorrow, we'll walk down to our cove with you, and you'll meet Toothless and take your first flying lessons. For tonight, you should probably stay right here. You're adjusting well to the transformation, but your mind and body have just been through a huge change, and none of us knows how you'll respond to that."

"I just want to fly," she sighed.

"Dad says you have to walk before you can fly," Young-girl-night-fury said.

"And you have to sleep before you can walk," New-night-fury added. "We've had a busy night. Let's get some sleep, all of us." They lay down together, with Guana in the middle and the two adult Night Furies on either side of her.

Guana didn't think she'd be able to sleep at all, she was so excited. But her body had been through an extraordinary change indeed, and it took a lot out of her. She fell asleep quickly. That night, she dreamed the most wonderful dreams.

The very next day, those dreams began coming true.


	31. Deleted Scene 4-a

**Lightning and Death Itself** Deleted Scene 04a

A/N _I've gotten multiple requests to write sequels, epilogs, etc., for this story. At this time, I don't have any ideas to add; the book is pretty well closed. But in the interest of keeping my readers happy, I can offer you something a little different: deleted scenes._

_Like the deleted scenes from a movie or TV show, these are chunks of dialog and action that I considered writing, but ultimately left out or glossed over because I thought they distracted from the flow of the story. But they have merit, and since you want to read more from this story, I'll write them out and let you enjoy them. They will appear in no particular order._

_This scene takes place in the middle of Ending 1-a. It almost tripled in size as I wrote it, compared to what I expected it to be, so I broke it into two chapters. This is the first portion._

**o**

"You're the chief! You can do something about it! You _have_ to do something!"

Stoick threw up his hands. "What do you want me to do, Edda? Banish them? Shame them in front of the whole village? I don't have that authority over them. I don't have _any_ authority over them – they aren't even Vikings!"

"They live in your town," Edda Hofferson persisted. "They have to abide by your rules, even though they aren't human any more. One of those rules is that a boy and a girl can't live together unless they're married, right?"

"Edda, I don't want to rub salt in the wound, but... he isn't a boy any more, and she isn't a girl any more. They're dragons, both of them. They live by dragon rules now. As long as they don't bring any harm to Berk, I can't force them to live like people when they aren't people."

"But it's _wrong!_" she sputtered. "What if all the other young people in town start thinking, 'It's okay for them, so it must be okay for me, too'?"

"If they all get turned into Night Furies first, I'll have to give them my blessing," Stoick replied. Gunnarr tried to stifle a snort.

"This isn't a joke, Stoick! How can you let your only son break every rule you've ever taught him?"

"For one thing, he was breaking all the rules _long_ before he turned into a dragon," the chief sighed. "For another thing, he can't do any of the things a Viking is supposed to do when he gets married. For a third thing, I had a talk with him about this a few days ago, and he tells me that dragons don't marry."

"Maybe that's good enough for you and your son, but it's not good enough for _our_ family," she snapped. "We believe in tradition, and in doing things right! Those two are _not_ doing things right; they're making a mockery of everything we hold sacred! One of your jobs as the chief is to uphold our Viking traditions, isn't it?"

Stoick glanced at her husband. "You haven't said much, Gunnarr."

Mr. Hofferson started to open his mouth, but his wife cut him off. "Never mind that. I'm not the only one in my family who's outraged at this... this shameless behavior! Some of my brothers and cousins are so angry, they're talking about challenging your son to a _hólmgang_ to restore our family honor."

Stoick actually began to laugh. "Challenge a _Night Fury_ to a _duel?_ You're joking, right?" She glared at him. His laughter stopped. "You're not joking. All right, tell me this: how does Astrid feel about all this?"

"She's on the same side as her shameless dragon lover! It's like we taught her nothing!"

"Her 'shameless dragon lover' is my _son,_ Mrs. Hofferson," he growled. "Please keep that in mind. You aren't the only one who's had a hard time with the changes those two have been through."

"No, but it looks like I'm the only one who still cares about right and wrong," she persisted.

Stoick knew that he was right (and so were Hiccup and Astrid), but he could also see that he wasn't going to win this debate with logic. Maybe if he did something chief-like, it would buy him some time to think of a solution.

"I suggest that we hold a two-family meeting to discuss this. Both of you, me, and the two young... I mean the two dragons in question will meet in the Mead Hall tomorrow, an hour after lunch ends. Is that acceptable?"

"I don't know what there is to discuss," she replied heatedly. "Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and talking about it won't change a thing."

"We'll be there," Gunnarr said, "and we'll pass the word to our daughter." He put both hands on his wife's shoulders and guided her away before she could say any more.

"You were no help at all!" she snapped at him.

"You knew I disagreed with you before you started this confrontation," he replied calmly. "You still haven't explained how they're supposed to get married in the first place. I believe in traditions, too, but for those two to go through a wedding, they'd have to ignore every tradition in the whole ceremony."

"There _has_ to be a way!" she said firmly.

"When you think of a way, please let me know," he answered. "Hopefully, you'll think of it before tomorrow's meeting. I'll go let our daughter know about it."

"I'll go with you," she said firmly. He shrugged, and they both made their way toward the other side of town.

Astrid saw them coming up the road, and glided down from the Nest to meet them. Her scratching of runes in the dirt was getting slightly faster with practice, but it was still slow and laborious.

MAMA, DAD  
IT'S GOOD TO SEE YOU

"It's good to see you too, honey," her father said affectionately, resting a hand on top of her head. "Where's Hiccup?"

HE'S FLYING WITH TOOTHLESS

"Astrid, there's something on our minds," Edda cut in. "We... how should I say this? We don't approve of the way you and Hiccup are living."

I DON'T UNDERSTAND.  
DO YOU WANT US TO WEAR CLOTHES?

Gunnarr snorted again; Edda elbowed him. "We think you two should get married."

MAMA, DRAGONS DON'T MARRY

"Maybe they don't," she answered firmly, "but you're still our daughter and you ought to respect your parents' wishes. Especially when it's about something as basic and necessary as marriage."

DIDN'T WE HAVE THIS  
DISCUSSION A WEEK AGO?

"Yes, and my view hasn't changed," her mother shot back. "You're a respectable girl, and he's the son of our chief. You need to do the right thing, for a lot of reasons."

WE CAN'T, FOR A LOT OF REASONS

Gunnarr cut in, "Would it be so hard to just go through the ceremony, to make your mother happy? You know about her and doing things the traditional way."

WE'D HAVE TO BREAK EVERY  
TRADITION IN THE CEREMONY.  
HOW WOULD THAT HELP?

"I can't believe it's that bad," Edda replied. "Gunnarr, go through the wedding ceremony, and we'll see who's exaggerating."

"Okay," he said, and took a deep breath. "First, there's the ceremonial washing..."

WE CAN'T FIT INTO THE BATH HOUSE

"... where your married relatives tell you what you need to know, in order to keep your husband happy."

HOW MUCH OF THAT ADVICE WOULD  
MEAN ANYTHING TO A NIGHT FURY?

"Then there's the sacrifice to the gods, to ask their blessing on your union."

NORSE GODS HAVE NO  
REGARD FOR DRAGONS

"Then you wear your nice clothes... never mind on that one... and you'd wear the bridal crown that used to be your mother's."

I DON'T THINK OUR HEADS  
ARE THE SAME SIZE

"Then you exchange swords..."

OUR CLAWS CAN'T GRIP A SWORD

"...and exchange rings..."

NO FINGERS

"...and exchange your vows to each other."

YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND US

"Then you both go to the reception in the Mead Hall. You have to be sure you don't trip over the threshold, or it's a bad omen."

WITH FOUR LEGS, IT'S HARD TO TRIP

"Then Hiccup has to throw his sword into the central pillar and hope it doesn't fall out."

HE STILL CAN'T GRIP A SWORD

"Could he throw it with his teeth?" Edda wondered. "He seems very clever."

WOULD YOU LIKE TO HOLD A  
SWORD IN YOUR TEETH?

"Maybe not," Gunnarr nodded. "Then you have to serve him mead in a special goblet while reciting a special verse, and you have to drink it together."

I CAN'T HOLD A GOBLET,  
WE CAN'T DRINK OUT OF ONE,  
AND I CAN'T RECITE.

"Then we lay a hammer in your lap and recite a verse to ask Thor to bless your babies."

I'M GOING TO LAY EGGS,  
NOT HAVE BABIES, AND  
I DON'T EVEN HAVE A LAP!  
CAN WE STOP THIS SILLINESS?

"Astrid! Show respect!" Edda snapped.

MAMA, I RESPECT YOU, BUT  
THIS IDEA IS UNREALISTIC.  
I KNOW YOU HATE TO HEAR THIS,  
BUT I... AM... A... DRAGON

"You make it sound like that changes everything," she pouted.

Astrid snorted. Before she could write anything else, Gunnarr cut in, "Edda, it _does_ change everything! She said it herself – the only thing that hasn't changed is that she loves us."

"Gunnarr, whose side are you on?" Edda demanded.

"I'd like to make everybody happy, but you aren't willing to bend and face reality at all. We can't just –" His wife turned and stormed off before he could finish.

DAD, I'M SORRY.  
I DON'T WANT TO CAUSE  
PROBLEMS FOR YOU AND MAMA

"You aren't the cause of the problem, Astrid. Don't feel bad. We'll work this out somehow. That reminds me – you and Hiccup are expected to join us and his father in the Mead Hall after lunch tomorrow. We're supposed to discuss this."

WITH NO DIRT TO WRITE IN,  
HOW MUCH CAN WE DISCUSS?

"Oh. I hadn't thought of that," her father said absently. "Hmmm."

He suddenly felt a downdraft. He looked up; Hiccup was hovering overhead, reading the many rows of runes that Astrid had scratched in the dirt. Toothless was flying figure-eights above him, marking time until his friend was done reading. They landed together, one on each side of Astrid.

"Hello, Hiccup. Good morning, Toothless," Gunnarr greeted them casually. Sometimes he mentally took a step back and was astonished that he was now on a first-name basis with dragons, and could tell them apart on sight. He had to remind himself that, compared to the changes his daughter had been through, his own changes were in the same league as changing his socks.

GOOD AFTERNOON, MR. H  
YOUR WIFE IS TALKING  
MARRIAGE AGAIN?

"I'm afraid so, Hiccup. We're going to have to settle this issue one of these days."

New-night-fury turned to Night-fury. "There's never been a case where dragons committed themselves to each other for life?"

"Not that I've ever heard of," Night-fury replied. "Dragons bond together during the mating flight, then they stay together to care for their young, which takes about a year until they're big enough to be self-sufficient. Some dragons change partners every year, some stay with the same mate for decades, but there's no mechanism for a life-long commitment. We stay together by choice, not by promises."

"Do dragons ever pair off without mating?" Small-night-fury wondered.

"Yes, it's fairly common for a male and female to keep each other company because they like each other," Night-fury nodded. "But that's _always_ a prelude to a mating flight together; it's like they're making reservations early. We have feelings like friendship and gratitude, but romantic love, the way humans feel it... we don't have that. You two are quite unique in that way."

Gunnarr could understand none of this, of course. Hiccup summarized their discussion with written runes for his benefit.

"Thank you for summing that up," he nodded. Astrid and Toothless glanced at Hiccup and laughed. Gunnarr continued, "So what we've got is two incompatible cultures, meeting head-on. Most head-on collisions don't end well for anyone."

INSTEAD OF COLLIDING,  
COULD OUR CULTURES  
GO SIDE-BY-SIDE?

"What do you mean, Hiccup?"

CAN WE SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE  
BETWEEN HUMAN CULTURE  
AND DRAGON CULTURE,  
AND DO SOMETHING NEW?

Gunnarr rubbed his beard. "Tell me more about what you're thinking..."


End file.
